


Through the Night

by silmarilz1701



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/M, Outside Look
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-01 09:05:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 34,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10185800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silmarilz1701/pseuds/silmarilz1701
Summary: Post "The Killing Game". Three passengers (OFC Human, OFC Bajoran, and OMC Andorian) are picked up at a space port to be taken home. Befriending some of the crew, they integrate slowly into the Voyager family. Canon pairings. OC/OC, OC/Tabor. Takes place in season 5.





	1. Found

_A/N: Hello friends! I hope you enjoy this fic. I have no end in sight, just the hopes of updates at least once a week alongside my LotR fics. The focus of Through the Night is to highlight three OCs (Two Female, One Male) in how they integrate into life aboard Voyager. They are Starfleet Academy aged (18-20 or so). Title comes as a combination of the episode: Night, which will feature heavily in the beginning, and the idea of a long emotional night that Voyager's crew is suffering from. Realistic look at what cadets aboard a star ship would do, not Wesley Crusher-esque._

_Enjoy!_

_Silz_

"Welcome to Xenil 5!" a short, stout alien man with green and pink skin said loudly and proudly to the newcomers. "What can we do for you?"

Fiona found herself looking on in curiosity and wonder from behind the door. She peeped through the keyhole at the newcomers and listened in. Behind and beside her, her fellow servants pushed and shoved as they tried to catch glimpses of this new crew.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Prefect Grinshaw," said a woman with red hair who was seemingly in charge. "Our ship requires a lot of repairs and we were hoping you and your people would be able to assist us."

Grinshaw nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! Of course! How many of you are there? I hope we can give your crew some shore leave on our beautiful planet!"

"Two hundred. I'll send them here in groups," smiled the Captain. "Thank you again."

Scrambling away from the door went all the servants, including Fi. She hid herself behind a column as the door opened and the woman left alongside Grinshaw, her master.

As masters went, Grinshaw was actually quite a kind and gentle one. Fiona was paid for her work, granted living quarters, and fed half her meals. Plus, she got to do what she loved: fix starships.

Ever since her parents had crash landed on Xenil 5 when she was but three years old, Grinshaw had employed her and raised her. She didn't know what species she was, only that the vessel she's been on had been an exploratory ship from something called the Federation of Planets.

Now, Fiona spent her days working on starships for Grinshaw. It was hard but rewarding work. She was a decent pilot and a good engineer now, despite what her fellow servants would say. For she was weaker than they, perhaps due to her species.

Xenilians were notoriously strong despite their moderate height and oftentimes wide girth. That made her lanky stature stand out more than she would've liked. True, there were other aliens on Xenil 5, especially at their space port, but she was the _only_ one of her kind.

"Fi!"

Fiona was dragged from her ruminations by the shout. She spun around and sent her brown hair spinning, looking in the direction of the call. She found herself facing Second Prefect Dural.

"Yes sir?" asked Fiona quickly.

Dural nodded. "The new ship is waiting for repairs. Report to Hangar 7 with the rest of the engineers to begin the work."

"Of course, sir." Fi scuttled away with a bow and took off running.

She had a new ship to explore. This new ship was rumored to be the largest one yet and she was eager to get on board. But first she needed her tools.

Rushing through the hallways of Grinshaw's building, she dodged other servants carrying food and drink and clothing for the various patrons who lived there. At one point she nearly bowled over a blue skinned boy with antennae in her hurry. That was Shara, her best friend. His parents had been aboard the vessel she had come on.

Fiona finally reached the hatch which led down a level to where the servants had their quarters. She scrambled down the ladder and jumped the last few feet. Down here was not as nice as the patrons' rooms above, but it wasn't bad. Each servant had a three room living space: one bedroom, one entry room, and one bathroom. The walls were grey and brown metals but they were allowed to hang keepsakes and decorate as they wished.

Fi's room was sparse except for the multitude of tools, scraps, and electronics lying around. The only picture in her room was one of her parents holding a dedication plaque to their ship, the U.S.S. Shenandoah, NCC-5592. Grinshaw had told her he managed to salvage it from the wreckage where he found Fiona.

She tore herself away from the image and grabbed the bag of tools she'd collected over the years. She changed from her servant's dress into her tunic and pants to work in. They were brown and white, but the white had turned grey long ago from the dirt that came with the job.

Within ten minutes, Fiona was outside the palace and walking in the light of the binary stars to the docking port where the new ship was located.

_**Elsewhere...** _

"It's such a mess," B'elanna sighed as she surveyed the destruction. "So much mess."

"Hey! We're on shore leave, remember?" Tom Paris poked the half Klingon woman in the arm and prodded her to keep walking past the destroyed sections. "Harry's meeting us for lunch so let's hurry up."

The recent occupation by the Hirogens had taken its toll on the crew, especially the bridge officers. As head of engineering, B'elanna had been working overtime on repairs.

As they walked through the corridors, they noticed workers from the planet space port boarding and beginning repairs. Most were Xenilians, but there were a few other species that neither could identify. They paid little attention.

When at last they left the ship, Tom and B'elanna were happy to smell fresh air of an M-Class planet. Xenil was beautiful; it was the Risa of the Delta Quadrant, some said. The sky was a beautiful swirling mix of light blue and pale pink, with white puffy clouds floating across it softly. The grass was green and the water, clear.

"Where are we meeting Harry?" asked B'elanna.

Tom pointed across the way to a large covered area. "Right there. Ensign Watson recommended it to me. He took Ensign Siegfried there earlier."

"Sounds good to me," she nodded.

Harry was there waiting for them when they walked through the doorway. He had on a fresh uniform and had cleaned himself up, though his bruises were still visible from the Hirogen.

"'Bout time you two got here," he grinned. "I'm starving!"

"What are the chances this place serves anything Earth like?" Tom asked them with a chuckle. "Ten to one odds?"

"I'll take that," B'elanna nodded. "They'll have fish."

Harry agreed with her. "Thats pretty much a staple food."

With a huff, Tom led them inside the restaurant. As they waited near what they assumed was the host desk, they looked around. It was well populated with various species, especially the native Xenilians.

At last a short female Xenilian walked up to them and beckoned. "Right this way!"

She led the trio to a table and sat them down with electronic menus. Each of the Starfleet officers was quite glad there were pictures included because they could not understand the written language of the Xenilians. Only the universal translator allowed for speech as it was.

"Look!" B'elanna smirked. "Fish!"

"That's not fish," Tom protested and crossed his arms defiantly. "That's some sort of aquatic alien creature."

"Fish." B'elanna said again, dryly.

Harry laughed. "She's right, Tom."

Their waiter came up moments later. "What can I get for you?"

Harry looked up first and gaped. "You're Andorian?"

The waiter froze and looked at them in surprise as well. Before him sat two humans, and a Klingon hybrid.

"You know what I am?" He asked them in surprise. "How?"

B'elanna spoke first. "We're from the Alpha Quadrant. Are you? How is there an Andorian out this far?"

"The ship my parents were on crashed here after exploring the Delta Quadrant. I was born in this Quadrant." He paused and bowed his head. "My name is Shara."

"What ship were your parents on?" Tom asked. "Was it Federation?"

"It was called the U.S.S. Shenandoah." Shara sighed. "I do not know if it was Federation."

"Sounds Federation," Harry said to the other two. "We should take you to our Captain. She might want to speak to you."

"I cannot go right now," Shara protested. "I have work."

"Fine." B'elanna nodded. "What time do you finish?"

Shara looked at his 28 hour watch. "8 o'clock my time."

"We'll be sure to meet you outside then," she told him.

"In the meantime," Tom grinned, "can we get some of this aquatic alien to eat?"

"You mean the fish?" asked Shara in confusion.

Harry and B'elanna smiled. "The fish."


	2. Visiting Hours

Fiona was off work at eight that night. She had toiled for five hours in the depths of this new ship. She wasn't sure what it was called officially, but the crew referred to it simply as Voyager. Yet for once in her life, she was less intrigued by the ship and more by the passengers. For they were special.

They looked, for the most part, like she did. Had she finally found her species? But Fi didn't want to get her hopes up, and she had a job to do. She was doing the mundane work of repairing the bulkheads and corridor walls. Vital, but boring, work. She rarely saw anyone else while working and soon she turned her full attention to her job.

Once eight o'clock came around, Fiona packed up her tool bag and wiped as much soot and oil off her hands as she could. Her face had black ash smeared across it, a testament to how hard she had toiled that day. But she liked it. It was enjoyable.

She got in line with the rest of the workers as they began to leave the ship one by one. She tried to catch more glimpses of the Voyager crew as they boarded for the night, but she wasn't very successful.

Until she saw Shara.

"Shara?" She said in surprise as she darted out of line over to him. "Shara!"

The Andorian boy turned to her in surprise.

"Where are you going?" she asked him before suddenly realizing he was accompanied by three Voyager crew mates. "Oh! My apologies!"

"This is Fiona Bishop," Shara told the others. "Her parents were on the U.S.S. Shenandoah as well."

"Human?" Harry gasped.

She looked confused. "What's a Human, sirs?"

"You." Tom laughed. "Come on. The captain will want to see you both."

Fiona looked at them in alarm as she and Shara were escorted forward into the ship. She was still covered in ash and oil, her tools were strapped to her hip, and her hair was a tangled mess. She smelled disgusting, her legs were tired, and her arms didn't want to cooperate.

As they walked through the ship, all Fi could do was focus on walking. She was exhausted from her day of labor and to be quite honest, had no interest in talking to the ship's captain. If she could do anything, other than sleep, it would've been to take a look at the warp core.

Then she saw the bridge.

"Captain," B'elanna said as she walked on in infront of the others. "We found two survivors from an Alpha Quadrant ship working as servants on the space port."

The red haired woman from earlier turned and stood, looking at them as they entered. Fi grabbed Shara's hand for comfort. The other members of the bridge crew, a woman with cybernetic implants, a man with a tattoo, and another man with pointed ears all followed suit to see them.

"Human and Andorian?" The captain looked in surprise at them.

"If you say so." Shara shrugged as he looked at the captain. "I am Shara, this is Fiona."

"Captain Kathryn Janeway of the starship Voyager." She smiled and walked over, shaking hands with the Andorian boy.

"Fiona Bishop," nodded the human girl, taking Janeway's proffered hand.

"How did you two get all the way out here?" She asked them this, guiding them over to a side room and beckoning her senior officers to follow.

"We don't know," Shara shrugged. "We were born in this Quadrant, as far as we can tell. Both of us had parents aboard the U.S.S. Shenandoah."

"That sounds Federation," Chakotay, the man with the tattoo said quickly.

The woman with cybernetic implants nodded. "U.S.S. Shenandoah, a Luna-class Federation Starship captained by Commander Leslie Bishop. Discovered by the Borg and assimilated on Xenil 4 fifteen years ago."

"That's where we were found," Fiona nodded, finally speaking. "Shara, Tison Myral, and I!"

"Who is Tison Myral?" asked the pointy eared man.

"Myral is a girl who was found with us. She works in the station with us," Shara explained quickly. "She's some kind of species from the Alpha Quadrant presumably."

"How old are you two?" Chakotay asked them.

"We don't really know," shrugged Shara.

Janeway nodded. "Tom, take them down to sickbay. Help the Doctor take a look at them."

Shara bowed his head in thanks as he stood. Fiona, overwhelmed, merely got up and walked out.

"You two are lucky," Tom smirked. "Seems like you might get to go home if you stick with us!"

"It's not exactly up to us," Shara frowned. "We belong to Prefect Grinshaw."

Tom Paris looked at the Andorian boy in surprise. "Belong? You're slaves?"

Shara shrugged, shaking his blue head in denial. "Servants. But our lives belong to him. He saved us from the Borg."

"How'd he do that?" Tom asked them.

With another shrug, Shara answered him. "Xenilians are experts at scavenging. He found our vessel after the Borg. We had been put in cryo tubes by our parents."

Tom Paris nodded and showed them to a turbo lift. He ordered it onward. "Sickbay."

Shara glanced sidelong at Fiona. She looked dead on her feet and he felt bad for her. But this, it was more important than either of their comfort. If only Myral could've been there, too!

Fiona stumbled forward after them as they left the turbo lift. She yawned silently and tried to keep up.

"Hey Doc," Tom called out, "We have two new visitors for you to look at."

A man with little hair and a stern face rounded the corner. "Who?"

"Shara and Fiona," Tom replied immediately. "Two orphans from the Alpha Quadrant who ended up here. Captain wants you to look them over. Determine their age, that kind of thing."

"Welcome to Voyager," the Doctor said with a forced smile. "Mr. Paris, look over the girl. Human physiology is simple enough, even for you."

Tom rolled his eyes but gestured for Fiona to head over to a bio bed. She did so, eyes drooping in fatigue. Easing herself up, she sat with her legs dangling from the bed.

Using a medical tricorder, Tom examined her. He noted hundreds of amateurly healed cuts, bruises, and breaks. This alarmed him. Maybe the girl wasn't being treated as well as she or the Andorian boy claimed.

"Do you like it here," he asked nonchalantly, putting away his tricorder. "On the space port, I mean."

Fiona yawned again. "Yes."

"Do they treat you well?" Tom took a cloth and began to clean her dirtied face gently. Despite his somewhat rough exterior, he was quite caring.

"Yes!" Fiona looked at him in confusion.

"According to this, you're about 18 years old," Tom told her, eager to get off the subject of her treatment.

She yawned in response. Fi was eager to get to bed. She wanted to explore, sort of, but her top priority right then was sleep, and it didn't look like she'd be getting that any time soon. Beside her, a bed separating them, was Shara. He was chatting up the Doctor, and wasn't at all tired.

Tom smirked at her yawning and exhaustion filled expression. He knew what it was like to be as tired as she. He could see it in her eyes.

"What do you do for the Prefect?" Tom quizzed her carefully.

She smiled, perking up slightly. "I fix ships and pilot for him in competitions."

Tom looked at her in surprise. The girl wasn't particularly weak or anything, but she hadn't struck him as a pilot. He was definitely happy to hear her love of starships, though.

"I'm this ship's pilot," Tom told her. "And the woman I was with earlier, B'elanna, she's the ship's engineer."

Her face lit up instantly as she gaped. "She was the ship's engineer?!"

"Alright Paris. Let me see the readings," The Doctor interrupted. He examined the tricorder's information and frowned. "Well these wounds weren't treated well. But you seem in fine condition now."

" _Janeway to Paris."_

Tom touched his combadge. "Go ahead Captain."

" _Prefect Grinshaw has agreed to my request that the two newcomers stay here tonight, and he is sending over the other survivor. Ensign Kim is setting up some quarters for them. Take them there."_

"Absolutely." He nodded to thin air. "Come on you two."

Shara and Fiona, both now visibly tired, bid farewell to the doctor. It very much surprised them when the Doctor actually turned out to be a hologram, proved when he deactivated himself.

"Holograms shouldn't be able to do that," she sputtered in her exhausted stupor while Tom Pairs led them through the hallways and turbolifts.

"Where are we going?" Shara quizzed their guide.

Tom spoke quietly as it was night for the majority of the guests on board, for all except the nightshift workers. "VIP quarters on Deck Three."

"VIP?!" Shara looked shocked. "We're not important though."

"You're our guests," Tom shrugged as they reached two doors, one across from each other. "Here we are."

He inputted a code and opened the door on their left. As they entered, they found a girl their age, the bridge of her nose distinctively ridged. Across from her sat the man from earlier, Ensign Harry Kim.

"Myral!" Shara smiled. Fiona followed suit.

"Hi guys," she grinned with a yawn. "Master Grinshaw sent me here. Can you believe it?! A starship like the one our parents were on!"

Tom and Harry smiled at each other. It was nice to see joy nowadays, unlike the horrors they had been through recently, especially with the Hirogen. That had demoralized the crew fiercely.

"You two girls will sleep in this room," Harry explained. "Shara, you can sleep across the way."

As Harry and Tom bid goodnight to the two young women, they escorted Shara across the way. Fiona and Myral were both exhausted, and Fiona wanted to wash up before bed. As such they parted ways, Fiona heading to take a shower. It was glorious.


	3. Secured

In the morning, Myral and Fiona awoke to a buzzing at their door. Quickly rushing over to open it, Myral stood back and smiled. To her surprise it was the two men from the previous night: Harry and Tom.

"Good morning," Harry nodded. "You two ready to talk to your Prefect about staying on board?"

"You mean leave Xenil 5?" Fiona said with wonder in her voice. "Live on a starship?"

"Yeah," Tom nodded. "Exactly."

Myral laughed and clapped her hands together joyfully. "Come on, Fi!"

Fiona shrugged and huffed, following her eager friend into the hallway. Harry and Tom retrieved Shara as well, and the group went to meet up with Prefect Grinshaw, Captain Janeway, and the bridge crew in the briefing room. Along the way everyone was silent, even Myral and Shara. That _never_ happened when the two were together.

As they walked into the large briefing room, they found Grinshaw, Janeway, and Chakotay discussing in a corner. They were getting very animated. The other bridge officers sat or stood in pairs.

When the door slid open, everything stopped. Grinshaw looked at his three workers and frowned. He had very little interest in giving up one of his best pilots, let alone two other quality workers.

"Master," they said with a bow.

Instantly the Voyager officers were unhappy. They didn't like anyone referring to someone as 'master.' Tom and B'elanna both visibly stiffened. They particularly didn't appreciate it.

"Fi, Myral, Shara! What are you trying to do," Grinshaw sighed. "Why would you leave me? I who saved your lives!"

"As we explained," Janeway tried again, "these are members of a Federation vessel. It's our job to take them home."

"They have a home!" Grinshaw glared. "Xenil 5 is their home!"

Myral glared and Shara stiffened. Unlike Fiona, neither of them particularly wanted to stay on Xenil 5. In fact they particularly wanted to leave.

"You can't keep us here, master," Myral begged. "Please! Let us leave!"

"We want to see the stars," added Shara. "I want to see my home planet!"

"Have they explained how long that will take?" Grinshaw objected quickly. "They're talking 70 years, Shara! That's an entire lifetime!"

"We hope to cut down that time." Chakotay added immediately, interjecting quickly to help the workers. "It probably won't take that long."

"In all likelihood," Seven added, "We will find a spatial anomaly or wormhole. Statistically speaking."

Grinshaw sighed. "I know what you two want." He gestured to the Bajoran girl and Andorian boy. "But Fiona? What do you want?"

Fiona paused thoughtfully. With Prefect Grinshaw she got to work on thousands of ships every year. She got to race in competitions, build ships in her spare time. If she left, who knew what she could expect?

Yet this starship was full of her species, and was advanced beyond anything she had yet encountered. The possibilities were endless. All she had to do was say she wanted to stay here.

"Master, I thank you wholeheartedly for all you have done for me," she bowed her head in respect. "But these are my people. I wish to remain on board."

The Prefect looked sadly at her but nodded. "Very well. I expect compensation, though, Captain."

Janeway smiled. "Of course, Prefect. Let's discuss that in my ready room."

The two of them left the briefing room, leaving the three new passengers awkwardly standing. The first officer came up to them.

"Welcome aboard." He shook their hands. "For now you can remain in the VIP quarters. I would like to discuss options as to what you will do aboard Voyager."

"This one's a pilot and engineer," Tom told him, coming up beside Chakotay and gesturing to Fiona. "I want to see her skills."

Chakotay shrugged. "Alright then. Ms. Bishop, for now you will work with Lieutenant Paris."

"I was a medic on Xenil 5," Myral said quickly.

Chakotay smiled and beckoned over the Doctor. "Doctor, you will teach Ms. Tison medicine. Walk her through Starfleet Medical training."

Shara sighed. "I was a waiter."

"What do you want to do?" Chakotay asked. "Anything in particular?"

"I enjoy helping people." He paused sheepishly. "And cooking."

Chakotay nodded immediately. "Very well. Report to the mess hall. You'll find Neelix there. He couldn't make it to this meeting, but he's our morale officer."

"Cool," the Andorian young man nodded and smiled.

Quickly, Fiona was led by Tom Paris out of the briefing room. He and B'elanna were chatting together as the young woman followed behind, dragging her feet. She wanted to see the warp core.

"Why the long face?" Tom grinned. "As soon as Captain Janeway works out the details with the Prefect, I'll take you up in a shuttlecraft and you can show me your piloting skills!"

Fiona forced a smile. "Okay."

"What do you really want to do, Bishop?" B'elanna asked her, rolling her eyes at Tom Paris.

Fiona looked surprised. Few people ever asked her that. "Could I see engineering?"

"Sure!" Tom nodded.

B'elanna shot him a glare but sighed. "Yes. But don't touch anything."

Fiona perked up instantly. Now she didn't mind being away from her peers. She was going to see Engineering!

"I do want to pilot a shuttlecraft," she quickly added to Tom Paris. "I do!"

"Good," he grinned. "There aren't too many pilots around here."

B'elanna led them to the turbolifts and ordered it to Engineering. Fiona looked at them carefully for the first time.

The woman, B'elanna Torres, was some kind of species with a ridged forehead. She sort of reminded Fi of Myral, who had a ridged nose.

"What species are you?" Fiona asked her.

B'elanna spoke, her voice betraying slight annoyance, for what reason Fiona wasn't sure. "I'm half human, half Klingon."

"What are Klingons?"

B'elanna sighed with irritation. "A fierce, warrior race with anger issues."

Tom snorted in amusement as the turbolifts doors opened. "Come on, you two."

They walked into Engineering and Fiona stopped in awe. The warp core, dormant as they remained on the planet's surface, was nonetheless massively impressive. The consoles all around her were more advanced than what she was used to.

"Come on," Tom smirked, playfully pushing her forward. She moved slowly on.

B'elanna walked her around. "This is the-"

"-Warp Core," Fiona finished for her slowly.


	4. Adjusting

It was Chakotay who showed Shara to the Mess Hall. Together the two men made their way through corridors and turbolifts. Shara was a well spoken, articulate young man who, despite his species' tendency towards anger and violence, was actually quite kind and considerate.

"So what is my home world called, again?" Shara asked Chakotay.

"Andoria," replied the first officer. "It's a large M-class moon. Lots of ice."

"I'd love to learn more about it," the Andorian smiled softly. "I have always dreamt of going home."

At last they reached the mess hall. Chakotay led Shara inside and over to a small kitchen like area. Behind the counter was an alien man. He was Talaxian, Shara noted. A few Talaxians lived on Xenil 5.

"Neelix," Chakotay hailed him, "this is Shara. He's one of the three survivors we are taking on."

Neelix stopped what he was doing, preparing some kind of meal, and looked at him. "Shara! Nice name! I'm Neelix."

"You're Talaxian." Shara nodded with a smile, shaking his hand. "I've met a few of your kind."

"Really? Well I hope the left a good impression on you." Neelix chuckled lightly. "What can I do for you?"

"Shara here is a budding cook, Neelix," said Chakotay. "The Captain has assigned him here to learn from you as your assistant morale officer."

Neelix immediately brightened up. Wiping his hands again on a towel and barely able to control himself, the Talaxian came out of his kitchen in enthusiasm. He hugged Shara immediately.

"That's so exciting!" Neelix nearly shouted. "I've always wanted someone to help me in the kitchens!"

"I'll leave you two alone," Chakotay smiled, shaking his head. "Good luck, Shara. Speak to me if you have any concerns. Neelix, don't forget to get him a combadge."

"Of course, sir! Come on, Shara. Let's grab a drink and sit down. I want to get to know you!" Neelix dragged the blue skinned man over to an empty table and sat him down. "What would you like to drink?"

"Just water, please," Shara insisted.

Neelix nodded and walked briskly over to the replicator. He retrieved a water for Shara and a Talaxian concoction for himself. When at least he was sat down across from Shara, he nodded for the Andorian to begin.

"Where to begin?" Shara thought carefully with a small smile. "Well. I myself was born aboard a vessel called the U.S.S. Shenandoah twenty years ago. When I was five, a Borg attacked our vessel near Xenil 4. Myself and the children were all hidden in cryo tubes by the nursery staff. Only three of us survived the crash."

"The other two- they're the other servants on board now?" Neelix asked him, interjecting.

Shara nodded. "Myral and Fiona both came aboard with me. They were three when found on Xenil 4. I am the only one of us with memories of life aboard the Shenandoah, but even mine have faded and remain hazy. I recall very little."

"How did you know your names?" Neelix wondered aloud, sipping his drink.

Shara nodded. "When Master Grinshaw found our wreckage, he freed us and downloaded what he could of our ship's datacore, including a ship's manifest."

"And you were sold into his servitude?" Neelix looked disgusted. "Just like that?"

"It's the culture of the Xenilians," shrugged Shara. "We understood. Our lives belonged to him. He was a good master."

Meanwhile in Sickbay, the Doctor was administering a long standardized test to Myral. She twiddled her thumbs and bit her tongue as she looked at each question. To the Doctor's surprise, the Bajoran young woman managed to get about a third of the questions right.

"I'm quite impressed," he admitted. "This test was for me to get a baseline of where your medical knowledge stands. You seem to be about a second year Starfleet Medical student. Very good!"

Myral grinned happily. She was generally a very happy person, always eager to please and be pleased. Myral enjoyed the company of others, too, and enjoyed that part of the medical job.

"So that's good?" She asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Indeed. I wasn't expecting you to score that high."

She shrugged. "Most of my medical knowledge comes from Delta Quadrant experience. But I have been well trained by Xenil 5's top doctors. Only the best for Master Grinshaw."

The Doctor detected the sarcasm in her voice. As he walked to retrieve a Padd for her, he ventured a question. "You didn't like working for the Prefect?"

Myral stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. "I didn't necessarily dislike it. I was paid and well fed. But we never got to explore, see the world. Now I will get to see the stars!"

The Doctor nodded. He understood. Most of his time on Voyager, he had been confined to sickbay. But thanks to his mobile emitter, he now had free rein. He could even go on away missions!

"Here." He handed her a Padd. "I want you to study this for tomorrow. I will quiz on it. Report back to Sickbay at 0800 tomorrow."

Myral smiled and nodded. She thanked the Doctor and went to see if her belongings had been transferred to her quarters yet from the ones on planet. The Captain had given Myral her own quarters separate from Fiona, which she felt ecstatic about. Not that she didn't love Fiona, but her own quarters were highly appreciated.

When she arrived, she found they had indeed been put inside. She didn't have much; a ragged brown teddy bear, a stuffed giraffe, a knitted blanket, and a medical kit were all there was. But she was glad to see all four items sitting in her room for her. She began to arrange them in her starkly blank bedroom.

Suddenly there came a ring at her door. Myral skipped over to it and opened the door. A young girl who looked to be about ten, was standing there with a card in hand.

"Hello," Myral said, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Hi! You're Myral, correct?" asked the girl with the four little horns on her head. "I'm Naomi Wildman, I'm the Captain's Assistant on this vessel. I wanted to formally welcome you aboard."

Myral grinned. She took the card that Naomi offered gently and nodded. "Thank you, Naomi!"

"You're welcome." The girl smiled. "Well, I have to go. Duties to perform, I'm sure you understand."

"Of course!" Myral looked at her seriously. "Can't keep you from those."

"Hope to see you around, Myral," Naomi shouted back with a wave as she ran down the corridor, hair bouncing behind her.

"You too!"


	5. Starry Night

The next morning, Voyager was ready to leave Xenil 5. The bridge crew was at the helm, and after bidding farewell to their hosts, Captain Janeway ordered Tom Paris to take them into space.

"Yes ma'am," Tom smirked as he touched a few buttons and began the launch sequence. "We should clear the planet's atmosphere in two minutes."

Janeway nodded and sat up straighter. "I'm not sure how much you've heard in terms of rumors from the Xenilians. But we are heading into a region of space called 'The Void.' But we need to cross it to get home."

"The Void?" Tom said bemusedly, "sounds horrible."

Harry agreed. "This won't be any fun."

"It is not about 'fun,' Ensign. We must cross it to get home," Tuvok replied to him.

"Clearing the upper atmosphere," Tom chipped in as he looked at his sensors.

Janeway suddenly smiled and touched her combadge. "Janeway to Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona here."_

"Miss Bishop, report to the bridge with Shara and Myral."

" _On our way, Captain."_

The officers looked at her in confusion. But she knew what she was doing. There was no mistake in the call she just made.

She smiled. "They've never seen space before."

A few minutes later and the turbolift's doors opened. Out stepped three people, a human, a Bajoran, and an Andorian. Gasps came from all three as they stepped onto the bridge.

"It's… it's beautiful," Myral breathed aloud.

Shara was awestruck by the sight of the stars. "It's incredible."

But Fiona was struck not by the stars alone, but by Voyager's bridge. She stepped forward as if in a trance, as all three made their way down to the main section of the bridge.

Fi didn't notice that all eyes were on her as she walked up to the view screen. She was entranced by the beauty. She reached to touch it.

"Magnificent, huh," Tom said with a soft smile.

She nodded. Suddenly aware that all eyes were on her, she froze and stopped in her tracks. Ripping her hand down, Fiona walked back to where her other two friends stood.

"Welcome to space," Janeway smiled. "It's your new home."

"Thank you, Captain," Shara nodded quickly. "We can't thank you enough."

She shook her head. "Nonsense. We've taken on _Borg_ passengers before, three Alpha Quadrant refugees are no trouble."

" _Doctor to Myral."_

"Go ahead," said the Bajoran woman.

" _You're late."_

"Sorry, Doctor!" Myral made a face and turned to the Captain. "I'm afraid he waits for no one."

Janeway smiled. "Go on. Get to work."

"Neelix was supposed to be showing me some recipes today," Shara added. "I best get down there, too."

Both companions bid farewell and rode the turbolift to their respective destinations. But Fiona didn't budge. She was transfixed on the view screen once more. Harry smiled and shook his head as he watched her.

"Sorry, Captain." Fiona shook herself from her stupor. "I'll leave now, too."

Janeway smiled to her gently. "Nonsense. I put you under the command and guidance of Tom Paris. And he's currently here. Stay as long as you wish."

Fiona's eyes lit up instantly. She made her way over to a secluded corner of the bridge and sat down to watch the officers work. Harry kept an eye on her, watching as her eyes darted from Tom's flight station to the view screen itself. He shook his head in amusement. He remembered being eighteen and star-struck.

Fi couldn't get the idea of someday flying in this vast expanse of space out of her mind. She had flown low altitude shuttles and racing pods, but never been outside the atmosphere. Until today, that is.

Tom Paris, always looking for a new project, couldn't get his mind off the young woman far to his right. She reminded Tom of himself. Eager for adventure, and a lover of the open expanse of space. He was excited to work with her.

"Tom, warp us out of here," Janeway said once they had cleared the solar system. "Let's head home."

It didn't take all that long, merely a few days, before the crew realized why the Xenilians referred to the area they were entering as the Void. On the fourth day from Xenil 5, the view screen went black. And it stayed black.

On the seventh day, Lieutenant Paris finally had a substantial amount of free time. He'd sorely been neglecting his duty as Fiona Bishop's mentor, and was ready to finally spend some time with her. He had wanted to include B'Elanna, but she ended up taking an extra shift on the bridge, covering for Vorek.

He touched his combadge. "Computer, locate Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona Bishop is in her quarters."_

Tom patted his badge again. "Paris to Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona here. Go ahead, Lieutenant."_

"Meet me in holodeck one in ten minutes."

Holodeck time was a precious commodity, but Tom had saved up his rations so he could take Fiona Bishop on a tour of Starfleet Academy. He thought she might enjoy seeing her home planet.

When he reached Holodeck One, Tom pulled up a program he had found the other day. Just as he was about to go in, Fiona came trotting up the corridor.

"Lieutenant," she said with a nod.

"Please," he protested, throwing his hands in the air. "I'm just Tom. No one calls me Lieutenant but my superior officers."

Fiona nodded. "Alright then. What are we doing?"

"Well first of all, B'Elanna wanted to be here. She said she was impressed with something you suggested in engineering a few days ago? But she couldn't make it." Tom paused and gestured for her to walk into the holodeck. "I drew up a program of earth. Thought you might like to see it."

As they walked inside, Fiona looked up in amazement. The sky was a pure blue, instead of the blue and pink of Xenil 5. White puffy clouds floated around. The grass was bright green. To her far right was a huge bay, and spanning it was an orange bridge.

"That's the Golden Gate Bridge," revealed Tom. "And that big set of buildings over there? That's Starfleet Academy."

"Starfleet. That's where people like you went to become part of the exploration vessels. My parents went there," she mused. "Cool."

A shuttle flew overhead and Fiona grinned like a child. She wished to ride in one, she wished to _pilot_ one. She loved flying.

Tom watched her. He laughed to himself as she began to walk towards the Academy's flight training grounds. That had been _his_ favorite spot in Starfleet Academy.

"Let's see your piloting skills," he smirked. "Try one of these shuttles. I'll show you basics and then you take over."

She nodded intently. All introversion was gone. She was in her domain.

Fiona was going to fly.


	6. Settled In

"A pinch of paprika…"

Neelix had left Shara alone in the kitchen area of the mess hall so he could talk to his goddaughter, Naomi Wildman. The girl had come bounding into the room, flustered, saying something about the 'Flotter program isn't working.' Shara was very confused, so he turned to his cooking instead.

"A pinch," he murmured again, taking a small bit of the spice between his fingers and sprinkling it into the bubbling pot before him.

"How are you functioning today, Shara?" came a voice behind him.

He turned to face the window to the mess hall. What he saw surprised him. The former Borg drone was there.

"Seven of Nine," Shara muttered in surprise. "I'm fine. You?"

"I am alright," she nodded. "I was asked to see how each of you are doing."

"Fine," he shrugged immediately. "And Myral and Fi have seemed okay."

"That is good," Seven agreed. "I will leave you to your cooking."

She left without another word. Shara was glad; he knew Seven of Nine was a valued member of this crew, but he wasn't comfortable around her yet. After all, she had been _Borg_.

Shara looked over to where Neelix and Naomi were talking to Ensign Harry Kim. He liked Harry well enough. Shara watched as Ensign Kim bent down to talk to Naomi and nodded, understanding the problem. Together, he and Naomi left the mess hall, no doubt going to take a look at Holodeck Two. Neelix looked over and smiled, walking back to the kitchen.

"Luckily Harry was here." He nodded, walking over and tasting the dish Shara had been preparing. "Good! Good!"

"Thanks," smiled the Andorian. "I appreciate it."

Suddenly a woman walked into the mess hall, looking obviously distressed. It was Myral. Shara looked in concern and Neelix noticed.

"Well. Go be a morale officer!" He pushed Shara forward out of the kitchen.

Shara didn't have to be told a second time. Putting down the ladle he'd been using and wiping his hands on the closest towel, he ran over to her.

"Myral!" He grabbed her hand and led the upset woman over to a quiet corner. "Myral what's wrong?"

Myral sniffled tears. "I was reading about my home planet- Bajor. I was curious if I had any family there."

"No, I take it?" He sighed and rubbed her hand with his thumb.

She shook her head. "They're all dead. Bajor was locked in a war for decades, occupied by a species known as the Cardassians. They slaughtered my people!"

"Well, when we get back maybe you can put your medical skills to work for Bajor," suggested Shara. "Help heal your world."

She sniffled and nodded, rubbing her eyes to clear the last tears. Myral hugged Shara tightly. The remained locked in comfort for several moments. Shara let Myral break the hug when she was ready.

"Any idea where Fi is?" Myral asked him, sniffing.

Shara shrugged and tapped his combadge. "Computer, locate Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona Bishop is in Holodeck One."_

Fiona sat in the seat beside Tom Paris. She looked at the control panels around her and understood most of the readings. She was very excited to finally get to learn piloting tricks from Lieutenant Paris, and wriggled in her seat from excitement.

"You seem happy," Tom smirked as he tapped a few buttons for the preflight sequence.

Fiona shrugged nonchalantly. "Just another day piloting a shuttle."

Tom chuckled and shook his head. "Preflight sequences ready. It's all yours, Fiona."

She breathed in with excitement. She felt her blood pumping and her face flushing red with anticipation. She saw rather than felt her hands and fingers flying to touch a few buttons that Tom had explained to her were the thrusters and navigational. This shuttle was laid out very similarly to her own craft she'd worked with on Xenil 5.

Fiona felt the craft move upwards as it left the ground. She couldn't stop smiling, not even for a microsecond.

Tom watched her carefully, checking her movements to be sure she did exactly as she had been instructed. The young woman was a fast learner, he'd give her that. And she certainly was eager.

"Keep her steady," Tom warned. "These low Earth shuttles can be tricky."

"I've got it," Fiona assured him. "The shuttles I fixed up for Master Grinshaw were way worse than this. Much more finicky."

And indeed she did have it under control. Tom had given her a schematic to study the day before and she must've done her homework because she knew where almost every essential button was. Once in awhile she'd freeze, unsure of where the correct panel button was. In these cases, Tom calmly pointed it out for her.

She was flying a Federation low-Earth shuttlecraft. And it felt good. She witnessed beautiful scenery of a planet she had never visited, a planet which she would hopefully someday call home. This… Earth. Terra. It was gorgeous.

"Do you miss Earth?" She asked Tom as she maneuvered the shuttle to take a pass over the water.

Tom sighed and frowned slightly. With a deep breath he nodded. "Yeah. Yeah I do."

Fiona frowned too. "I hope you get home some day."

"Hey. Same to you," Tom smirked. "After all, you're just as human as me."

Fiona supposed he was right. She navigated around another ship that was flying nearby and sped up. She took the shuttlecraft closer to the sea, so close she almost touched the deep blue water. Tom shook his head with a smile. He checked what time it was and sighed.

"The Doctor has the holodeck next. And he hates when I'm late." Tom looked over at Fiona. "Take us back, pilot."

She frowned but nodded. Tapping the ship's controls, she returned the vehicle to the landing zone and they got out. She ran her hand through her hand and put her hands on her hips.

"Thank you," she smiled at Tom. "I loved that."

"Any time." He sighed. "Computer, end program."

The holodeck returned to its natural, metal state. Just as they turned to leave, the Doctor walked inside.

"Ah! Good timing, Mr. Paris." He frowned at Fiona. "You might want to find your friend, Myral. She seemed rather shaken when she came to our lesson an hour ago."

Fiona frowned and nodded. She thanked Tom Paris again and jogged out of the holodeck.

Tom turned to the Doctor. "How _is_ her training coming along?"

"Wonderfully. The girl is a natural at medicine." He paused. "And your little protégé? How's Ms. Bishop doing?"

"Great." He nodded with a small smirk. "She's great."


	7. Trials

**"** It's so black…" Myral frowned as she stared out the windows in the mess hall. "There's nothing out there."

"Maybe we should paint white spots on the inside of the windows." Fiona snorted, amused at herself, as she said this and took a drink of milk. "Make it look like stars."

Shara rolled his eyes as he took a bite of chocolate cake. He had found this recipe while working with Neelix a few days ago. They had been in the Void for two weeks now and it was wearing on the crew. Shara did his best to keep spirits high, implementing a program where people could help make their own food in the kitchen. Neelix had loved the idea.

As they sat in the darkened mess hall, the time nearly two in the morning and everyone else gone, the three companions were silent. The blackness outside the window was painful.

Finally, Shara turned to Fiona. "How's the training with Lieutenant Paris going?"

She shrugged and flashed a smirky smile. "He's a trip. But I am learning a lot from him. He said we can try flying a copy of Voyager's shuttles in the holodeck tomorrow now that I'm familiar enough with Starfleet systems."

"How about you, Shara?" Myral asked.

He smiled. "Neelix is keeping me busy. I've also been hanging with the other Andorian on board, Ensign Clea. She's a security officer. Clea's been teaching me about Andoria."

"Tal Celes, a Bajoran woman, has been helping _me_ ," revealed Myral. "She's cool. A little ditzy, but nice."

With a yawn, Fiona stood up. "I'm gonna head to bed. You too should do the same."

"We will," Myral smiled. "Don't worry."

Fiona laughed a bit to herself as she left the mess hall and saw Myral and Shara holding hands. Those two had always been crazy about each other. She herself just loved ships. She wished she had one here herself, not that she wanted to go flying when there was nothing but black void out there.

In the morning, Myral was awoken by the Doctor. "Rise and shine!"

She slammed her combadge off and groaned. Suddenly the screen in her room popped on. She threw a pillow at it but groaned as the Doctor reprimanded her.

"I need your help, Myral! Get down to sickbay." He smiled. "And look happy!"

She stuck out her tongue at the hologram as he shut off the screen. Doing as she was told, Myral rose and got dressed into some nice clothes she had replicated. Pinning her combadge on, she rushed out the door after brushing her teeth and hair.

She hurried through the corridors. With a hustling gait, she managed to reach sickbay in not too long. Myral wondered why the Doctor needed her?

"I'm here!" She panted as she ran into Sickbay. "What did you need?"

"Smile, Myral! I have your first patient." The Doctor smiled, pleased with himself. "Myral, this is Ensign Zirael."

"Hello." Zirael nodded. "Nice to meet you."

Myral looked at the woman before her. She had white-flaxen hair, and her forehead had a ridged circle which betrayed her species: Cardassian.

"You're Cardassian?" asked Myral as she grabbed a medical tricorder and began to scan Ensign Zirael.

She smiled softly. "Half. I'm also half human."

Myral nodded. "It looks like you have an ordinary headache. I'll give you a hypospray to reduce the pain."

Zirael breathed out in relief. "Thank you. I recently suffers head trauma on an away mission, so I was worried it was something else."

"Nope." Myral smiled and shook her head. She grabbed a hypospray and injected Zirael in the neck. "All clear."

The Doctor was pleased. He watched as Myral interacted with Zirael. He had found out that her distress the other day was from learning that her homeworld had been decimated by Cardassia. He wanted to see how she'd react to interacting with a Cardassian.

Zirael was a unique one, being a Cardassian-Human hybrid. She was the daughter of the Cardassian liaison to the Federation and had grown up on Earth, joining Starfleet as a science officer specializing in xenobiology.

Zirael bid farewell to the Doctor and Myral before leaving to rest before her shift in the lab. Myral watched her go and frowned when the door closed.

"Why is there a Cardassian on this ship?" She muttered in question to the Doctor.

He sighed. "Myral, you have to realize she's not like any other Cardassian who attacked Bajor. She's a Starfleet officer!"

Myral nodded. "I know. It's hard. But..." She sighed. "But, I know."

"Now." The Doctor smiled. "Since you're here, you might as well begin your lessons early."

Myral laughed but agreed. She went over to the table where he set up her lessons and accessed the computer program he'd designed with Lieutenant Torres' help. They were boring, more often than not, but there was an occasional gem of interest.

Later that day, Fiona visited sickbay to see her friend. She walked in eating an ice cream bar.

"What's that?" Myral asked in awe.

Fiona smiled. "They call it 'ice cream'."

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Make sure it doesn't drip on the floor. It's hard to get out of carpet."

Fiona chuckled and shook her head. She licked a drip off the ice cream bar and shoved the remaining bite into her mouth. She tried very hard to not wipe her fingers on her shirt so instead ended up licking off the residue.

"You're disgusting," Myral laughed at her. She handed Fiona a tissue.

Fiona smirked. "Go away."

"Hey, you came in here to see me!" Myral pointed out immediately. "Why aren't you hanging with Lieutenant Paris? Isn't this about your usual training time in the holodeck?"

"He's hanging with Ensign Kim today," Fiona revealed. "Something about… Captain Proton?"

" _Paris to Fiona Bishop."_

Fiona looked confused but responded immediately. "Fiona here. Go ahead."

" _Report to Holodeck Two if you would."_

"On my way." She turned to Myral. "So much for having the day off."

Fiona made her way down to Holodeck Two. She wondered what Tom wanted, considering he was supposed to be playing Captain Proton with Harry.

When she reached the Holodeck, she found Tom and Harry standing there in strange outfits. They held some clothes for her, too.

"You beckoned?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah! B'Elanna refused to engage in our holodeck activity so we need a third and female member. Seven said no… so you're up," Tom grinned. "Go in and change."

"You've got to be kidding," she mumbled as she took the clothes and went inside. "Fine."

"Thank you!" Harry smiled.

Fiona went inside the holodeck and slipped into the costume she was supposed to wear. It was a slinking dress with a thigh holster for a ray gun. She then put on a large white now in her dark hair and put on her black heeled boots.

"I look ridiculous," she muttered as she rejoined the guys outside. "This is so impractical."

"At least you look good," smirked Tom as he gave her a sack to put her clothes in. "Now. You are Lady Celestial. The warrior princess of a distant galaxy."

"Joy."


	8. Captain Proton: Episode One

"So what _is_ Captain Proton?" Fiona asked as Tom pulled up the program for the holonovel.

Tom responded. "I'm studying how ancient earth viewed the future and space travel. Captain Proton is a holonovel from pulps of the 1930s that I use to do that."

"It's also just fun," Harry winked with a smirk as Tom headed inside the holodeck and they followed.

" _Chapter 36, Invasion of Andromeda,"_ said the Computer.

Inside the holodeck, Fiona noted they were on some kind of crude representation of a space ship. Tom handed her a gun and began to tell her about her role.

"You're Lady Celestial, princess of a space empire that Chaotica is trying to take over. You have come to ask our help." Tom grinned. "Go on, ask!"

Fiona folded her arms and rolled her eyes, but obeyed with some enthusiasm after sighing. "Captain Proton! Will you help save my empire?"

"Of course, Lady Celestial!" Tom Paris ran over to his rocket ship's navigational system. "Input your coordinates in here."

Fiona punched in a random set of coordinates and Tom shrugged. He decided it was good enough. He instructed he trusty sidekick Buster Kincaid to ready their rocket ship's weapons.

"Chaotica will likely expect us, so we need to be careful," Tom said. "He might use his-"

"-incoming missile!" shouted Harry.

Tom tried to turn the rocket ship so that it would miss the missile. He succeeded partly, but it still knocked some of the panels off. Structural integrity was impaired now.

"Emergency Landing!" shouted Tom.

Fiona gripped a metal bar on the side of the rocket ship and braced for impact. When the ship crash landed, she was thrown forward and landed on her side.

"Ow," she muttered. "Why did I agree to do this?"

Tom and Harry came over and helped her up. She struggled her feet. She hated wearing heels. They made everything difficult and there was no practicality.

 _There's no practical purpose for a dress with a slit this high up the side either,_ she thought ruefully.

"I'm good," she assured them as barraged her with questions. "I'm fine."

"Then grab your ray gun. We're on the planet where Chaotica's Lightning Beam is being built." Tom handed her a sci-fi gun. "Come on."

"Lightning Beam?" asked Fiona.

"Yeah. He's gonna use it to destroy your people's planet." Harry smirked. "You don't want that to happen do you?"

Fiona chuckled and shook her head. "Of course not."

Harry snorted humorously. He caught the ray gun that Tom tossed him and smiled. He wasn't as excited about the Captain Proton holodeck novels as Tom, but he enjoyed them nonetheless. As they stepped out onto the planet's surface, Harry confusedly looked around.

"Isn't this the same as the Mines of Mercury?" He sighed. "Jeez they were uncreative."

Tom laughed. "Yeah well, money was tight back then. More precious even than latinum."

Fiona walked around, trying to adjust to the uneven ground while in heels. Suddenly she shouted. A ray gun was pointed at her temple.

Tom and Harry spun around at her gasp and found themselves looking at servants of Chaotica, holding guns to Fiona's head. She looked altogether miffed.

"Captain Proton!" One of them grinned maniacally. "It looks like we have captured Lady Celestial. Put down your ray guns or we _will_ kill her."

"Don't do it, Captain Proton," Fiona said dramatically. "Don't endanger yourself!"

"Put down your ray gun, Buster," Tom sighed, dropping his own. "We cannot let them harm Celestial."

Fiona rolled her eyes good naturedly as she watched Tom and Harry drop their weapons for her. Two servants grabbed each one of them and together all three were escorted, blindfolded, to where Chaotica had his Lightning Beam base of operations.

After stumbling about in heels, eventually Fiona's blindfold was removed. She found herself in a large room, almost like a castle throne room. On a throne to one side was an older man with very sharp eyebrows and a nasty look in his eyes. Fiona supposed this was Chaotica. Behind her she heard rather than saw as Tom and Harry were brought in.

"Lady Celestial," Chaotica smiled gleefully. "Lady Celestial, welcome to my domain. This is my summer home, so excuse the cramped space."

Fiona raised an eyebrow. It was hardly cramped. "What do want, Chaotica?"

"You will address him as 'your excellency'," barked a man to her right.

"I want you, at my side," grinned the maniacal ruler. He flicked his fingers and the two people restraining Fiona brought her close to him until they were nearly touching.

"Don't touch her, Chaotica!" Tom growled.

Chaotica smirked and raised a hand. Sensually he brushed his fingers down her face. This caused her to flinch and try to pull away.

"You are mine now," he grinned. "As will your empire be, once my Lightning Beam is ready."

Fiona spat in his face. Tom and Harry looked at her in surprise before smiling. All of Chaotica's people were so in shock that they managed to overpower them. Chaotica, recovering, grabbed a ray gun and pointed it at her. He smacked her cheek.

"You fool," he screamed in anger. "You will regret this! You will-"

"-I've shut it down!" Harry announced.

Chaotica had been so distracted by his newfound hatred of Lady Celestial that he'd been completely oblivious to what Buster Kincaid was up to. Chaotica roared in anger and shot Fiona. However it did not damage to her as the safety protocols were on.

"Fiend! Monster!" cried Chaotica. "Get gone, take your empire too!"

Tom hit a button and a containment field sprung up around Chaotica. The monarch cried out in fierce anger as he watched Captain Proton, Buster Kincaid, and Lady Celestial run from the fortress.

"Ow!" screamed Fiona as they scrambled to their ship.

Tom and Harry spun around to see what was wrong. Fiona was on the ground, gripping her ankle.

"Stupid heels!" She gritted her teeth. "I sprained my ankle."

"Computer, end program." Tom frowned. "Let's get you to sickbay."

He and Harry supported her between them. They helped her up and through the halls until they reached a turbolift.

"Never give me high heels again," she muttered.

Tom smirked. "At least you look good in that dress."

Harry laughed at the indignant look on her face. "Hey Tom, don't let B'Elanna see her in that with you. She might get suspicious."


	9. Creeping Darkness

As the doors to sickbay slid open, Tom and Harry helped Fiona between them. She hissed in pain as they let her put a bit too much weight on her foot.

"Doc," Tom called to the physician. "You here?"

"Where else would I be, Mr. Paris?" came a sigh from around the corner. "What did you do this time?"

"Fiona sprained her ankle," Harry responded for the lieutenant.

"Why is she wearing that?" The Doctor asked, arching an eyebrow. Suddenly he throw up a hand. "Wait. Let me guess. _Captain Proton_?"

"Right on," Tom smirked. "She was playing Lady Celestial."

"That's one heck of a dress," Myral said, smirking as she followed the Doctor around the corner. "And shoes!"

"These shoes cost me my ankle," muttered Fiona as she was helped onto a bio bed by the officers.

"Well, I'm on night shift," Harry sighed. "I'll see you guys later."

As he left sickbay, the door opened and B'Elanna Torres walked inside. She looked decidedly annoyed.

"Hi Lieutenant Torres," Myral smiled as she retrieved the medical instruments the Doctor was going to request.

"Myral," nodded B'Elanna in greeting. Then she looked from Fiona to Tom and shook her head in irritation. " _Tom_ Paris."

"Uh oh," he muttered. "What did I do _this_ time."

"You tell me!" B'Elanna gestured to Fiona. "You've got a promising young cadet in a slinky dress with heels."

"We were just having fun," Tom protested.

B'Elanna folded her arms. "Then why is she injured?"

"It's fine, really," Fiona chuckled.

The Doctor interrupted as he injected her ankle with a hypospray to bring down the swelling. "She's fine. Just stay off your foot for a day or two to let this take effect."

"Okay," Fiona smiled. She turned to B'Elanna and reassured her. "Don't worry about Tom. He wasn't _too_ irresponsible. Plus you'd have to get mad at Harry too."

B'Elanna raised an eyebrow but sighed in defeat. "Fine. She saved your skin, Tom. Fiona I expect to see you in engineering tomorrow. 0800 hours."

"Aye," she nodded.

The doctor protested. "Now hold on Lieutenant! I said this patient needs to be off her feet."

B'elanna sighed. "Very well. We'll postpone your next lesson. Get better quickly."

The chief engineer nodded to the young woman and sent a gruff eye at Tom Paris. She turned and left the room, leaving Fiona, Tom, Myral, and the Doctor standing around. The Doctor sighed.

"Well, get going. Neither of you are needed here and my pupil has work to do." He turned to Myral. "Go on! Back to work."

Tom and Myral helped Fiona down from the bio bed. The pilot took her arm and helped her down the corridor as her foot was still in some discomfort. He cleared his throat.

"Sorry about this," he said sincerely. "I really didn't mean for anything to happen."

Fiona shot him a smile. "It's fine. I had fun. But I might redesign the costume before our next mission."

Tom looked hopeful. "You'll keep joining me and Harry?"

"I'm sure Celestial has plenty of adventures awaiting her," Fiona laughed before wincing as she put too much pressure on her foot. "But it'll be a little while."

They rounded a corner after taking a turbolift to Deck Two, guest quarters. Tom left her at her room and she went inside as she told him goodnight. Hobbling deeper into her room, Fiona fell quiet. She looked out her window and saw blackness.

As it happened, the blackness began taking hold of her mind. A week went by and no one had come to see her. Occasionally she would hobble over to Myral's or Shara's rooms, and would converse with them, but as the days of darkness continued, it began to infect her mind.

Soon enough she stopped leaving her room altogether. She missed several shifts and gave vague excuses to anyone who asked why. She just didn't have energy. None. She stopped going altogether.

A darkness had taken hold of her mind, a darkness as black as the void beyond her window. Nothing made her happy anymore. Even the thought of flying a shuttle had no effect.

Two, three weeks went by since her injury. The fifth week in the Void was upon them, the long night still ahead. And all Fiona could do was lay in her bed, stare at the ceiling, and wish she was somewhere else.

_Elsewhere..._

"Warp core is at peak efficiency. Again," B'Elanna muttered as Chakotay gathered the senior officers for a briefing.

Chakotay nodded. "Harry?"

"Nothing new." Harry sighed.

The first officer turned to Tuvok. "Anything on sensors?"

"Nothing new." Tuvok shook his head.

Chakotay sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. They all looked at the windows in the room and everyone frowned. It was a month and a half into their journey through this expanse and there were no new crises, no new discoveries.

"Well, if there's nothing else-"

"-actually there is," Tom spoke up. "It's Fiona."

"What about her?" Chakotay asked.

Tom, Harry, and B'Elanna exchanged glances. No one had told the others of her recent withdrawal and abandonment of duties. They had tried to respect her privacy.

"Neelix, Doc," Tom continued. "Shara and Myral have been acting… normal, right?"

"Those little lovebirds?" The Doctor snorted. "Yes. Normal enough. Why?"

"Fiona hasn't been showing up to her training," B'Elanna finally spit out. "At all."

The room went silent as Chakotay furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"For awhile she said she felt sick," Tom explained. "Wasn't feeling well conveniently during our training sessions, or whatever. But then she stopped talking to us. Like, at all."

The Doctor immediately spoke up, face serious. "Fiona has not come to see me about feeling ill. When did this start?"

"About three weeks ago," Harry said. "She's stopped coming to our Captain Proton hours too."

Chakotay looked slightly alarmed. "Computer, locate Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona Bishop is in her quarters."_

"This needs to be fixed now," Chakotay sighed. "Tom, Doctor, I want you two to go check her out. Everyone dismissed."


	10. Cortisol Levels

"What could be wrong with her?" Tom muttered as he and the Doctor made their way to the nearest turbolift.

The Doctor shrugged. "Many things."

Tom shook his head. Taking the turbolift down a deck, they didn't speak. As they walked down the corridor they ran across Shara leaving his quarters.

"Hey Doctor, Tom," Shara smiled. "How are you?"

"Fine," Tom nodded before changing the subject. "Have you spoken to Fiona lately?"

"No," he sighed. "Occasionally Myral and I will ask her to dinner but she always has something going on like training with you."

Tom and the Doctor exchanged glances. Shara looked concerned.

"Why? Is she okay?" He made his way over to them.

The Doctor shrugged. "We're about to find out. I suggest you leave us to it, Shara."

Shara frowned but finally agreed. He went off to find Myral but glanced back in concern before entering the turbolift. Tom and the Doctor walked up to Fiona's door. Paris pressed the door chime.

After several moments and no answer, the Doctor sighed and spoke. "Computer, override door lock."

The doors slid open and Tom and the Doctor rushed in. The lights were down.

"Fiona?" Tom called lightly. "Are you in here?"

The Doctor ordered the lights up. The made their way to her bedroom and found Fiona lying on her bed, eyes open as she stared up at the ceiling, a few tears on her face.

"Fiona, _what_ are you doing?" Tom asked in confusion. "We called your name."

"Oh," she muttered, sitting up. "Sorry."

"How are you feeling?" The Doctor asked, taking out his medical tricorder and beginning to scan her.

"Fine," she murmured.

Tom furrowed his brow and folded his arms. "You don't _sound_ fine. Doc?"

The Doctor frowned but shook his head. "Mr. Paris, please leave us."

"Why, what's wrong?" He was concerned.

"That is confidential between doctor and patient," the Doctor insisted. "Wait in the main room if you want."

Tom Paris tried to object but the Doctor shook his head. Eventually giving in, Tom left the Doctor and patient to sit in the main room. The Doctor turned to Fiona who looked altogether unconcerned.

"Fiona, your cortisol levels are extremely high. Your prefrontal cortex has shrunk and your amygdala is enlarged. These are all consistent in someone who has clinical depression." The Doctor sighed as Fiona rolled her eyes and looked at him. "But you are aware of that, aren't you. This isn't the first time you've been like this."

Fiona glared. "It's none of your business."

"Actually as ship's Doctor, it _is_ my business," he shook his head. "How many times has this happened?"

She glared but eventually relented with a sigh. "Every year or so. Sometimes every two years, sometimes more than once a year."

The Doctor nodded. "I want you to come to sickbay with me."

"Now?" She protested. "Why now?"

"Because you're sick," the Doctor explained. "There's some medicine I can administer to you that will help!"

Fiona sighed, slipping off her bed. "Fine."

When the door from her bedroom slid open and she walked into the main room, Tom immediately shot up and joined them. Fiona didn't make eye contact as she followed the Doctor out of the room. Tom was speechless as he followed behind them.

"B'Elanna and I have some holodeck time together, but I'll see you later, Fiona," he insisted. "Right?"

"Sure," she faked a smile. "Later."

He nodded before taking off down the corridor the other direction for the other turbolift. His mind was racing a mile a minute. He'd overheard something about cortisol levels, and he kicked himself for not knowing more medicine. Some assistant to the doctor _he_ was.

"Paris to Torres," he said, tapping his combadge.

" _Torres here. Go ahead, Tom."_

"You ready," he asked, "I picked out a nice spot for a picnic before my shift in a couple hours."

"On my way. Meet you in holodeck two!"

Meanwhile, Fiona was guided to sickbay by the Doctor. Once there, they wandered in and Fi was ordered to take a bio bed.

"Myral, you are dismissed," the Doctor told Fiona's friend.

The Bajoran woman looked confused and concerned but did as ordered, leaving them alone in Sickbay. The Doctor retrieved a hypospray and injected it with several medicines.

"These should stabilize your cortisol levels," he explained while injected her in the neck. "I want you to see me every day for injections for at least two weeks."

Fiona sighed but didn't protest. "If that's all, Doctor?"

"No, it's not." He folded his arms. "I realize this illness makes you want to isolate yourself from others, but that is the opposite of what you _should_ do."

"I don't want to be alone," she protested, "but I don't want to place myself on anyone else."

The Doctor smiled softly. "For reasons I haven't figured out yet, Tom Paris and Harry Kim seem to have accepted you into their little demonic duo. And Lieutenant Torres values the time she gets to spend teaching you. Don't let your assumptions that no one likes you taint your mind."

Fiona sighed. She gave a quick nod and hopped off the biobed.

"I am prescribing you get at least an hour of holodeck time a day," he added as she went to leave. "I will let the captain know to put you on the schedule."

"Doctor?" She paused, back to him as she faced the door. "Do you think we will see stars again?"

The Doctor smiled though she didn't see. "Yes. Yes we will."

_Elsewhere…_

Down in the mess hall, Harry Kim sat with young Naomi Wildman as he ate lunch. She was drawing various nebulae and stellar phenomenon.

"Nice drawings," Harry smiled. "You should hang your pictures up around here."

"Good idea!" She grinned. "Will you help me?"

"Sure," laughed Harry.

Together the two of them worked to decorate the mess hall. Harry didn't color, but his height meant he was in charge of hanging Naomi's work. It took about two hours, but by the time Harry's shift was to begin, it was all done.

"Thank you, Ensign!" Naomi clapped her hands together in excitement. "Now we don't have to look at the blackness."

Harry nodded and said goodbye with a huge smile on his face. He left the mess hall and took a turbolift up to Deck One, bridge. Once there, it was he, Tuvok, and Tom on duty. They used less than a skeleton crew these days as not many were needed. On night shifts, Harry worked alone or with one other officer.

Tom was the last to join Tuvok and Harry. He straightened his uniform and ran over to his console without saying a word. They operated in silence for nearly an hour before that silence was broken.

"Tom," Harry said, coming over after a while. "How's Fiona?"

The lieutenant sighed. "I don't know. The doctor said something about cortisol levels before I was dismissed."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "That would be consistent with her current symptoms."

Tom and Harry immediately turned to face the Vulcan officer. How did he know?

"You mentioned she has been avoiding people, remaining isolated? She has missed duty shifts and stopped participating in your holodeck simulations." Tuvok nodded. "High cortisol levels could indicate clinical depression."

Harry and Tom exchanged glances. Depression? What were they supposed to do about that?


	11. Piloting

**A/N: I feel like this is how the Doc should've reacted, Juddysbuddy. It makes me sense with how this program usually reacts. Also, I gave Ensign Tabor a first name in this chapter: Jad. It's the first name of Tabor's actor.**

That night, Harry Kim and Tom Paris were on the night shift alone once Tuvok left. Tom sat in Janeway's chair and Harry sat in Chakotay's. They tried not to stare too intently at the blackness. But it was hard.

Suddenly, deep into their shift, they heard the door to the turbolift open. Both men spun around to take a look and were surprised to find Fiona in the doorway in her pajamas. They hopped up.

"Fiona!" Harry blurted. "What are you doing up?"

She hesitated. "The Doctor has said I should not be by myself if I get… this way. B'Elanna, Shara, and Myral are all asleep. I'm sorry to bother you."

"Not at all," Tom replied with a snort. "It gets boring up here."

Fiona nodded and walked down the bridge ramp and was about to take a seat on the floor when Tom smirked.

"Sit there," he corrected her, pointing to his usual pilot's seat.

"No thanks," she sighed. "I'm too tired."

Harry and Tom looked absolutely surprised. Since when did Fiona not want to fly a ship… especially _the_ ship. But they didn't protest. She slid down the wall onto the floor.

"If you're tired, go to bed?" Harry suggested.

Fiona smirked and shook her head before the smile fell and she hugged her knees. She shook her head fiercely now.

"I can't," she sputtered.

Harry grimaced. "Okay."

They passed in silence for several minutes. The only sounds were the occasional beeps of consoles and the ever present warp core rumble.

"Doc has ordered I get in at least an hour of holodeck time each day," Fiona said a little later. "I have an hour tomorrow afternoon if either of you care to join?"

"What program?" Tom asked curiously.

Fiona shrugged. "I haven't picked one yet."

"Have you read any good books since coming aboard?" Harry asked her. "Maybe there's a holonovel?"

"There's this book called… Lord of the Rings? Yeah that's it." Fiona smiled a little.

"Hey, there's a smile," Harry laughed. "Looks good on you, Bishop."

Fiona blushed and shook her head, trying desperately to stop the smile that was forming on her face.

"Oh! Oh look!" Tom laughed along. "It's growing!"

"Stop," she chuckled, trying to hide her face in embarrassment. "Stop it!"

"Take the helm and we might!" Tom laughed, pointing from where he sat in the Captain's chair to his usual station.

"I can't fly this thing," she protested. "I've never even flown a real shuttle!"

"Fair point," Harry smirked. "Fair point."

"Not good enough in my book!" Tom replied immediately. When Harry and Fiona both shook their heads he relented. "But fine. I've read Lord of the Rings. When we get off in a couple hours I'll whip up a few holo-locations from the book for you to hang out in."

"Can you make the Shire?" she asked excitedly, jumping up from her spot on the floor.

"Easiest one there is," he nodded. "Hobbits or no hobbits?"

"Let's do it without people first," she decided.

Tom agreed that would be easier. "Alright, cadet. Next order of business. Fly the ship."

Over the course of the next hour, Tom pointed out what each button and command did. She sat in his chair and pretended to touch the buttons until at last he was satisfied she could do the basics.

"Alright." He smirked, sitting back in the Captain's chair. "Adjust our course by .02 degrees."

She punched a couple buttons, hands quivering with excitement. She had forgotten how good it felt to fly, to try new things. And here she was, piloting a starship for the very first time. True, it was only a minor course adjustment but it was still something.

She felt the touch pad response to her fingers as they punched in commands. After a moment, the course adjustment was complete and she grinned widely, excited beyond anything she had been able to experience lately.

"Nice work, cadet."

All three people on the bridge whipped around to see Commander Chakotay stepping onto the bridge. Fiona immediately stood out of Tom's chair, and Harry out of Chakotay's, but Tom stayed where he was.

"She's a quick learner," Tom grinned. "Took us maybe an hour. But now she's able to make course adjustments just fine."

"Too bad she's only a cadet level officer," Chakotay smirked. "Might be a fine replacement for you, Tom. Seeing as she seems to understand rank more than you."

Tom smirked back but stood out of the Captain's chair. "My apologies."

Fiona covered her mouth to hide her laughter and Harry chuckled at her. Tom protested but Chakotay shook his head.

"You two are relieved." Chakotay told them this as an Ensign walked into the bridge and took his station at Ops.

Tom, Harry, and Fiona went into the turbolift and the doors closed behind them.

"So, let's get to engineering and see if B'Elanna can't help us design the Shire," Tom suggested. "Computer, Engineering."

They took the turbolift down. Upon arrival, Fiona, Tom, and Harry walked into the main engineering room and found B'Elanna talking to Ensign Tabor.

"Hey B'Elanna," Tom called over to her.

She looked up. "What do you want?"

Tom and Harry exchanged glances. Paris spoke up again as they walked to meet her. "Geez. You could be a little more welcoming!"

"Fiona!" B'Elanna interrupted. "Been awhile!"

Fiona nodded. "Sorry."

She shrugged. "It's fine. What can do I do for you?"

Harry chuckled. at the indignant look on Tom's face at the way B'Elanna addressed Fiona first. Harry patted him on the back with a fierce smirk.

"We need to create a holodeck simulation of 'The Shire' from a book called Lord of the Rings," Harry explained.

"Do you have design specs?" B'Elanna asked.

Tom smirked at Fiona. "Yes."

She looked at him in surprise. How could he have the specifications already?

"I made them years ago." He accessed his personal files using a workstation. "Here they are."

B'Elanna and Harry began the process of formalizing the specs. It took a few minutes but fortunately Tom had done a lot of the work already. Fiona waited patiently.

"All done," Harry smiled.

B'Elanna handed Tom his Padd back. Tom thanked her and turned to find Fiona looking at the warp core.

"So that's how you manually fuse an injector coil?" She asked Ensign Tabor.

He nodded. "It's an easy enough process, though time consuming."

Tom gave a short, silent laugh. He folded his arms and watched the interaction. B'Elanna tugged on his arm and guided him and Harry aside.

"Ensign Tabor and Fiona have been getting close," B'Elanna smirked. "Whenever she's scheduled to work he asks for a shift."

"Really?" Tom smiled with a playful twinkle in his eye. "She could do worse."

Ensign Tabor Jad and Tom Paris were good friends. They often designed holo-programs together. He was a young man, maybe twenty-three years old. He had joined up with the Maquis as a teenager. Ensign Tabor had been nineteen upon their stranding in the Delta Quadrant.

Harry chuckled and called out. "Fiona!"

Fiona and Tabor jerked around from where they had stood looking at the warp core. She and the Ensign walked over to the little trio.

"We just finished up," Harry told her. "Hey Tabor."

"Harry, Tom," he nodded with a smile. "What were you working on?"

"It's a holo-program from an old Earth novel, Lord of the Rings," Tom explained.

Tabor looked over the specs on the Padd Tom handed him. He nodded.

"Have fun," he smiled at Fiona.

She nodded and smiled at him. "Hopefully I will."


	12. Echoes of the Void

Tom and Harry made their way with Fiona down to Holodeck Two once her scheduled hour came around. She excitedly punched in the codes for the holo-program and the computer loaded the specs.

"Head on in," Tom nodded. "I'm ready to see my handiwork!"

Harry rolled his eyes but gestured for Fiona to go inside. She took a deep breath and nodded, stepping forward to enter the room. When it opened, all she saw were green rolling hills, blue skies, white clouds, and beautiful flowers. They walked onto a dirt road, worn by many years of heavy carts rolling down it.

"Welcome to the Shire," Tom smiled.

 _Elsewhere_ …

"Naomi!" smiled Shara as he fixed lunch for the crew. "I love the artwork you've put up."

"Thanks," she smiled back. "Ensign Kim helped me."

Shara suddenly had an idea. Leaving the food to cook, he undid his apron and wiped his hands on a hand towel.

"Come here, Naomi. I have a job for you." He beckoned to her as he took a seat.

The little girl sped over, intrigued. She smiled and bounced up and down on her heels. "What can I do for you?"

Shara leaned in and kept his voice down playfully. His antennae twitched.

"You know Fiona?" When she nodded he continued. "She hasn't been feeling well lately. Think you could make her something?"

Naomi brightened up and grinned, nodding her head up and down. "Of course!"

"Thanks!" Shara left her to work as he went back to his station at the kitchen.

Just as he put his apron back on, a voice brought him back out of his thoughts.

"You look perky today," said a female voice from behind him.

Shara turned around with a smile. He looked at the woman before him, Ensign Clea, the other Andorian on board.

"Ensign," he nodded happily. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Rumor has it that your friend is sick," Clea gossiped, leaning in and plucking a cherry tomato from behind the counter and sticking in her mouth.

"Not really your business, or the crews," Shara commented abruptly.

Clea kept pushing. "She's weak, fragile. Not worth your time."

Shara snarled at her and dropped his ladle. "Quit it, Clea."

Clea smirked. "There's the Andorian side of you. I knew it was in there somewhere. Takes awhile to get it to come out, though."

Shara glared, rolling his eyes. "I can be angry if needed. If that's what you mean by 'Andorian'."

Clea flashed him a smirk. "You're funny." Finally moving on on to her order she added, "Coffee, black."

"Careful, Captain Janeway might appear if you say that," Neelix joked as he walked into the kitchen, maneuvering behind Shara.

"It'd be about time," muttered Ensign Clea. "I hear she never leaves her quarters nowadays! How odd!"

"Yes," Neelix stuttered, "well I'm sure she's just busy."

"Busy with what?" Clea snorted and rolled her eyes. "Starfleet always does get weak in the knees when push comes to shove."

"May I remind you that we are one crew, Ensign," came a distinctly Vulcan voice as Lieutenant Commander Tuvok made his way over. "It has been five years since you were Maquis."

"Of course, Commander," Clea nodded to Tuvok. "I meant no offense."

Shara rolled his eyes at her comment but the Vulcan simply nodded. "The Captain may do as she pleases, however that may be. It _is_ her right." He paused before continuing when she remained silent. "Do you not have tactical training to lead for the crewmen in a three minutes?"

Clea quickly nodded. "Yes, sir." She rushed out the door.

"It is rather odd, though, isn't it Commander?" Neelix asked him quietly. "Is she alright? Should the Doctor take a look at her?"

"She is how she is," Tuvok sighed. "I fear we cannot help unless she comes to us."

That night Fiona slept well, better than she had in many nights. On her mind were the flowering hills and valleys of the Shire, and the companionship of Harry and Tom as they traversed the land of Middle Earth. Tom Paris promised he and Tabor would work on more vistas in the coming days.

Tomorrow, Fiona was scheduled for another hour of holodeck time. As the week passed, she enjoyed a couple adventures of Captain Proton, several escapades into Middle Earth, and even a picnic with Myral, Celes, and Tabor. She called them the Bajoran Trio comically.

But soon, things were about to get a little too exciting, a little too fast.

It was one day a week later, 53 days into their trip in the Void, when Fiona, Myral, and Shara were sharing a late afternoon snack in the mess hall. Chocolate lava cakes were the dessert of choice. At one side of the mess hall they forlornly watched as the blackness outside their ship merely stretched on into oblivion.

Suddenly the ship was knocked and Fiona dropped her spoon.

"What was that?" she murmured. Similar sentiments were being voiced by others in the room.

Myral and Shara didn't even have time to reply before the lights went out. Everyone was scrambling to get to their stations. Even without the signal of red alert, this was strange enough that officers wanted to report for duty.

Rushing to a door that some had forced open, Myral, Fiona, and Shara made their way towards the nearest Jefferies tube. Without power, the turbolifts were useless.

"Sickbay is three decks down," Myral nodded. "We should head there. You two will be out of the way and I can help the Doctor if we're under attack."

As they opened the Jefferies tube and Fiona began crawling down, a strange breathing noise was heard behind them. She froze.

Myral screamed. "Go!"

Fiona tore down the Jefferies tube, followed immediately by Myral. Shara came quickly behind them, sealing the way behind them.

"What the hell was that?" panted Myral, scared half to death. "What _was_ that?"

"Keep moving," Shara ordered. "Let's go. No time to waste."

Fiona and Myral continued without hesitation. Fiona wished she knew what her friend had seen, but she supposed it could wait until they were in a safer place.

Suddenly the lights began to come back as they emerged on Deck Five. Myral led them, visibly shaking, into sickbay. There they saw a horrible scene. Tom Paris was lying on a bio bed, face and chest covered in ugly burns.

"Myral!" called the Doctor. "Get me a dermal regenerator!"

She nodded and ran over to where the doctor kept his medical supplies. The lights began to go down again.

"Not again," muttered Shara.

Fiona frowned as she watched Tom groaning in pain. She wished she could do something, but she knew enough to stay out of the way.


	13. Sounds of Sickbay

_A/N: Lucky number 13. Finally updating via computer as opposed to smartphone so I can put in a nice note._

_I hope everyone is enjoying this story, I know I am. I love Star Trek so much. A little self-promotion, I plan on doing a little DS9 one-shot sometime soon, so stay tuned for that. It's gonna be a Bashir and O'Brien holodeck program. Should be good fun._

_Let me know what you guys want to see more of in this story. I find that between the three OCs I've created, I should be able to get unique perspectives on almost all the episodes, excluding ones like Timeless where time travel is involved as inherently those are not actually remembered... that'd be weird to write. Maybe I'll turn those into one-shots or something._

_Episodes in this fic that I will definitely be focusing on include Extreme Risk (Fiona-centric), Once Upon a Time (Fiona and Shara), Nothing Human (Myral), and Thirty Days (Fiona). I will touch on others in 5a, and from there I will either end this and begin a second fic, or just continue on through 5b until season 6. You may see I have a slight bias for Fiona stories, but that's because I like playing around with Tom and Harry as the best best friends in the world._

_Hope you enjoy!_

The lights came back moments after the second black out. Shara muttered it was probably because the Doctor got so mad about it.

"Probably," snorted Fiona.

Suddenly the doors of sickbay opened and Seven of Nine entered with Ensign Tabor, carrying a brown and black scaled creature between them. Myral gasped from where she stood assisting the Doctor with Tom Paris. That was the species of creature she had seen.

"Put it on the biobed!" the Doctor advised quickly. "Erect a force field if need be."

Seven and Tabor lifted the creature onto a biobed and left the area. The Doctor left Myral to finish treating Tom, heading to look after the creature. She looked at Tom and smiled.

"Don't worry, Mr. Paris," she comforted him. "Just a few more burns to treat."

"You've certainly got better bedside manner than the Doc," smirked Tom, obviously still in pain but trying to make light of the situation. "Remind me to ask for you when I get sent to sickbay!"

"Whatever you say, Lieutenant," Myral smiled, shaking her head and finishing up the treatment of his burns. She applied a hypospray to help his body fight any incoming infection before helping him sit up.

Tom nodded. "Thanks. I better get to the bridge."

"Tom do you have any idea what's going on?" Fiona called to him, running behind and finally catching up with him in the corridor. "Can I help with something?"

Tom hesitated. "Stay here or in your quarters for now. I don't know what's happening."

Fiona frowned but nodded. She understood. Heading back inside, she found Lieutenant Tabor standing with Shara and Myral.

"Seven grabbed me to get the alien," he was explaining to Myral and Shara. "I was leaving the mess hall."

"Sounds familiar," Shara muttered. "Fiona, Myral, and I-"

"Myral!" the Doctor called out. "I need your help. Get me a neurocortical monitor."

Myral rushed away from them and retrieved the instrument needed. She found it quickly and took it to the Doctor.

"What is he?" she asked him quietly. "Is he alright?"

"Minor phaser wounds," sighed the Doctor. "And-"

"-radiation damage," she gasped as she looked at his bioscans. "All over his body!"

Shara decided he would head back to his quarters. He was of no use in Sickbay and wanted to get out of the way.

"Where are you going, Fiona?" Ensign Tabor asked her.

The woman shrugged with a sigh. "I wish I could go to Engineering. All I want right now is answers."

Tabor mumbled something. He took her arm and pulled her out the door and down the corridor to the turbolift. "Torres is going to kill me for this."

Fiona looked completely confused but got into the lift with him. When he said 'Engineering', she smiled like a child. Tabor looked at her and shook his head. He and Fiona, once at Engineering, took a hard right to escape the gazes of the engineers.

"You owe me for this," he smirked at her, whispering in her ear.

Fiona smirked back as she and Tabor watched and listened to what was going on. As Ensign Mulcahey walked by, Tabor grabbed him.

"What's happened?"

"Some kind of vessel interrupted the alien attack. The Captain and Commander Chakotay are in the transporter room with it...er, him?" Mulcahey told them, looking at Fiona in amusement at her presence.

In Sickbay, Myral was helping the doctor analyze the alien, when Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay entered. The Doctor joined them as she remained scanning the alien.

"Watch your step, I've had to lower the lights," the Doctor said. "My patient is extremely photosensitive."

"It could explain why they dampened our power."

"My thoughts exactly. From what I can tell he may be native to the Void." The Doctor said.

Myral tried to block out their discussion. She didn't want to be accused of eavesdropping, but when the Alien started shivering in pain, and Janeway called for the Doctor, she couldn't resist coming over to hand him a hypospray.

The Doctor nodded in thanks to Myral as he took it and inject the alien. "This should alleviate the pain."

Myral watched the interaction between the Captain and the Alien. Apparently the alien feared Voyager to be an ally of The Malon, another species. Janeway agreed to return him to his people. They spoke for several minutes as Tom guided the ship to a set of coordinates.

"Will you help us?" was the last thing the alien said before being transported off the ship.

Myral was dismissed from sickbay after the Captain and Commander left. She decided to go find Fiona. "Computer, locate Fiona Bishop."

" _Fiona Bishop is in Engineering."_

Myral groaned and decided it wasn't worth trying to track her down. Instead she went to Shara's quarters. There, they swapped information, trying to piece together what was happening.

An hour later, Fiona was on the second level of the Main Engineering Room. She and Tabor were talking quietly when, several minutes later, the doors opened and in waltzed B'Elanna, Chakotay, and an alien wearing some kind of radiation suit.

"We're not saying this won't take some effort. We'd be willing to work with you," Chakotay told the alien.

"Ingenious design, our engineers would be pleased. It would solve a lot of problems on my world. Unfortunately, it would also put me out of business. Before long I'd be obsolete."

Chakotay and B'Elanna look at him in indignant shock.

"You can keep your technology," he spat out.

B'Elanna had to be restrained. "You lying-"

"What we're proposing isn't easy, it will take a lot of time. But progress can also bring new opportunities!"

Fiona watched them in awe and irritation. She saw Tabor bristling as well. She smirked to herself. He was pretty scary when angry, though it didn't happen very often.

"You wouldn't survive ten seconds in a conflict with me," the alien threatened.

Chakotay looked livid. "Get him out of here."

Fiona and Tabor grumbled with Mulcahey about the rudeness of this alien. B'Elanna looked up and saw them, and folded her arms. She shook her head when she saw Fiona, half angry she was here, half amused.

"Fiona! Get down here." B'Elanna called up where she was. Chakotay looked up and smirked.

She looked like a kicked puppy. She, accompanied by Tabor, scuttled down and went over to join the Commander and Chief Engineer. Chakotay rolled his eyes and folded his arms.

"You aren't authorized to be in here right now," B'Elanna said, also folding her arms. "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to help…?" she tried.

Chakotay sighed. "I'm leaving these two in your hands, Lieutenant. I have bigger things to worry about than a stray cadet and her accomplice."

B'Elanna nodded as Chakotay left Engineering. She turned to Fiona and Tabor again, her eyes full of mischief.

"Alright. I guess it's up to me," she smirked. "Tabor. Consider yourself on duty whenever Fiona has training here."

Tabor nodded. "Yes ma'am."

"And Fiona," B'Elanna chirped as she began walking away. "I expect to see you in engineering tomorrow. 0800 hours. Don't be late!"


	14. Spatial Charges

She missed the rain.

Fiona had just received her tenth inoculation from the doctor for her cortisol levels. It was late at night but it of course meant nothing to her because of the eternal night that was the Void. Fifty-four days they had been here.

She was tired of it. She wanted to see _stars_ again. She had only just experienced the vastness of space before they entered this Void, and now she was likely to spend another two years here, rotting away in a holodeck.

 _Holodeck,_ she thought. _Might be a rainy day program there._

Fiona made her way to Holodeck 2. To her surprise it was empty and she checked the schedule. No one had reserved it. Just her luck.

"Computer," she murmured, "Show any rainy day programs."

" _There are six programs that involve rain."_

She nodded to herself. "Display them."

The aforementioned six programs came up on the screen. She selected one called "Rain on Earth" and programmed the holodeck. She walked inside.

Breathing in deeply, she smiled as the pitter pattering of raindrops filtered down through the leaves of massive trees. The smell of a coming thunderstorm was strong and pleasant. She heard the roll of a thunderclap in the distance.

As she stood there, letting the cool water drip on her face and wash her clammy skin, she heard the sirens go off.

"Red alert," she muttered. "Wonderful."

She tried to ignore the noise but it ruined the atmosphere. It was useless.

"Computer, end program," she said with a sigh.

The holodeck program ended and the doors opened for her. She walked into the corridor and almost got run over by crewmembers rushing to their posts. Suddenly she caught sight of Ensign Clea.

"Ensign Clea!" called Fiona. "What's happening?"

"We're moving to the spatial vortex," Clea barked back. "Get somewhere secure and stay out of the way."

Fiona nodded and trotted to a turbolift which she took to deck two, VIP quarters. It let her off and the woman ran to her quarters to watch out the window. Maybe there would be a good view.

Indeed there was. Spatial charges went off around her and she nearly jumped out of her skin at the noise it made when hitting the shields. Fiona watched in awe as the ship navigated the explosives.

 _Nice job, Tom,_ she thought with a smile.

Suddenly she lost track of the Malon vessel. It had maneuvered out of her line of sight. But before five seconds had even passed, three alien vessels appeared and began firing at something, presumably the Malon vessel.

Fiona was standing at the window, watching, when they managed to cross the threshold of the vortex. It was incredible. Interweaving threads of greens and blacks and whites spanned the vortex, spinning in a multitude of directions. But then the alert sounded.

"All hands brace for impact."

Fiona didn't have time to react before the shockwave hit the ship. She was thrown to the ground, bumping her head on her bed. The impact knocked her out.

It was Myral who found her an hour later, lying unconscious on the floor. Fiona hadn't locked the door, fortunately.

"Fi!" Myral cried out as she saw her friend with a bleeding head. "Damn it, Fi. Always getting into trouble."

Myral lifted her friend up as Fiona began to wake. Together they stumbled to sickbay. Myral held her friend up, worried that if Fiona fully got ahold of herself before reporting to sickbay that she would refuse to go there. As it turned out, Myral managed to force her there.

"Doctor," Myral called out. "Fiona hit her head."

The Doctor came over and frowned. "Think you can treat the wound? I have several patients with plasma burns to still treat."

Myral nodded and guided Fiona to the last open bio bed.

"Sit still, Fiona," she ordered, retrieving a medical tricorder and a dermal regenerator.

Fiona didn't complain as she was still somewhat groggy. As Myral scanned her brain, she sighed.

"This will help with pain and swelling," she told Fiona, picking out a hypospray and injecting her patient.

"Thanks," Fiona smiled softly.

"So what happened?" Myral asked her best friend as she began regenerating the damaged tissue. "How'd this happen?"

"I didn't brace for impact in time," Fiona shrugged. "My fault."

Myral shook her head. It was just like Fiona to get into trouble. Myral had always been the voice of optimistic reason, Fiona the voice of pessimistic troublemaking. Shara was just there to balance them out.

"Alright. You're all set." Myral nodded to her. "Go get some rest. You're lucky you don't have a bad concussion."

"Do I _have_ a concussion?" Fiona asked her.

Myral nodded. "Not a bad one. You might be photosensitive for a few days and have a headache, but there shouldn't be any long lasting injury."

With a nod, Fiona slid off the bio bed. "Thanks. I better go nap then." She winked at her.

Myral chuckled. "Go."

As Fiona walked back to her quarters, she ran into Harry and Tom on the deck as officer quarters were further down toward the aft section.

"Nice piloting," Fiona smiled to Tom, though she was blinking at the brightness of the hallway.

Harry smirked and patted him on the back. "Captain Proton saved the day."

"Why is there blood on your shirt?" Tom asked her as they all walked through the corridor.

"I hit my head," she admitted. "Your piloting skills in the vortex weren't quite as impressive as during the battle."

Tom rolled his eyes. "I had no engines. We were only riding on inertia!"

"You're okay though?" Harry quickly added as a follow up.

Fiona shrugged. "Myral says I'm fine."

"You know the best part about taking you three on board?" Tom smirked. "I have fewer duty shifts in Sickbay."

Fiona laughed. "So it wasn't because you got a star piloting pupil?"

Tom smirked at her again. "Nope. That's just a small plus."

Fiona chuckled as they reached her quarters. "Good night, guys. Get some rest. You deserve it."


	15. Firsts

Tom grinned. "Alright, are you ready?"

Tom Paris, Harry Kim, and Fiona Bishop stood in Shuttlebay 2, Fiona wearing a modified uniform to indicate her status as a training member, an unofficial Starfleet cadet. Her uniform, just given to her this morning, was all black with a single stripe of red around her shoulders.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she muttered, following Harry and Tom forward towards the shuttle they were to be flying.

Voyager was in orbit around an M-class moon with large pockets of deuterium. They had stopped to refuel after so long in the Void, which they had exited two weeks ago. And now, Fiona was finally getting her chance to fly a shuttlecraft for real, not in a holodeck.

Harry chuckled and walked forward. "Come on. Let's get going."

Tom followed him but Fiona stayed where she was. They looked back and smiled with laugher.

"Come on, you gotta give us _something_. We spend a lot of time trying to get you flight ready!" Tom pointed out. "Time to put those skills to use."

Fiona smiled and shook her head but trotted after them to catch up. They reached the class-2 shuttle and Tom unlocked it. The three of them climbed inside.

Part of Fiona was jealous because Myral was spending the day on the planet's surface collecting plant samples for the lab with the Doctor and Ensign Zirael. They were hoping to find medicinal benefits from a few plants.

Nevertheless she was grateful she got to fly today. True, she had sat at the helm of the starship once, but this time would be in control of a real flight in a shuttlecraft.

As she stepped inside the shuttle, the smile on her face widened. Tom and Harry saw.

"There it is!" Harry laughed.

Tom shook his head with a chuckle. They knew she hated how wide her smile got and how she couldn't control it when excited.

Fiona tried to cover her mouth but eventually she gave up and just waited for Tom to tell her where to sit.

"Well," Tom instructed. "Take the conn, pilot."

"Aye, sir," she grinned.

Fiona made her way quickly to the front of the shuttle. Tom stood next to her but far enough away that it wasn't overbearing. Harry took a console behind them. Tom told her to alert the bridge to their impending departure

"Cadet Bishop to bridge," she said. "Shuttle 2 is ready for launch. Requesting permission to depart."

Janeway's voice came through the communications system. " _Request granted. Have fun cadet."_

Fiona smiled wide again as the shuttle bay doors began to open. She pushed a few buttons disengaging their shuttlecraft from the vessel.

"One quarter impulse," Tom instructed, turning all business.

Fiona nodded and tapped a few buttons. Slowly the shuttlecraft disembarked from Voyager and flew into space. Fiona gasped audibly at the stars around her and the beauty of the planet below.

"Don't get too excited yet, cadet," Tom smirked. "We're just doing basic flight training today."

"I know," she nodded seriously.

Harry watched her from his console. She may have only been six or so years younger than him, but she had a childlike joy he had lost awhile ago. He wished he could enjoy his first taste of flying a class-2 shuttle all over again.

Myral, meanwhile, was on the surface of the M-class moon. There were dozens of species of plants down here which had never been seen before.

"I can't believe this!" She squealed as she crouched and stuck her finger in a small, flowing stream.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"That I'm on a new planet!" Myral spun around, standing back up.

The Doctor closed his tricorder and looked around with a smile. "I remember the first time I ever went on an away mission! It was exhilarating."

"This is incredible," Myral agreed as she took a sample of a flowering plant and put it in a sealed container.

The Doctor snapped a photo of her with his holoimager. "For remembrances."

Ensign Zirael, who had been assigned to them, was also gathering samples of the water and soil. Myral went over to her.

"What about you, Ensign? Do you remember your first away mission?" the Bajoran woman asked the half Cardassian.

Zirael smiled and nodded. "Indeed I do. It was about six months into our journey in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager is my first posting."

"We need to meet up with the other teams in half an hour," Ensign Clea, the officer assigned to them for security, reminded them. "Get your last few samples in."

Myral nodded and took a sample of the soil and shaved a bit of bark off a nearby tree. These would be good for testing. When everyone was ready, they began the hike back to the transport coordinates.

Suddenly, Myral tripped on a tree root and fell flat on the ground. She cursed. Zirael offered her a hand and she accepted. Now there was dirt all over her new cadet uniform. Her black with a blue striped uniform was covered in dirt.

"It'll come off," Zirael smiled. "At least you weren't hurt."

Myral supposed she was right. Still, she was irritated that it had been Ensign Clea she'd fallen in front of. Myral was no stranger to her scathing remarks and demeaning sense of humor from her interactions with Shara. But the Andorian ensign remained silent.

"Come come!" the Doctor chimed as he walked ahead. "Voyager awaits!"

" _Janeway to the Doctor."_

"Go ahead, Captain," he responded.

" _I don't want you or Cadet Tison to transport up to Voyager. We are sending a shuttle down to get you."_

The Doctor looked confused. "Why, Captain?"

" _Cadet Bishop needs the practice."_

Myral grinned widely. Fiona was going to be picking them up! As they made their way back, she couldn't help skipping along in glee at her completion of her first away mission. _And_ she was going to get to share that with Fiona.

Upon arrival, the Doctor and Myral handed over their samples to Ensigns Zirael and Clea who transported up to the ship. But the two of them remained behind and within seconds of watching the comrades leave, they looked up and saw a shuttlecraft preparing to land in their clearing. Myral grinned as it touched down and ran over to the shuttlecraft airlock.

"Fiona!" Myral shouted as it opened and out came Harry and Tom. She didn't even give them a second glance.

The human woman smiled and walked out. Myral embraced her immediately.

"This is so exciting!" Myral grinned. "You're so cool! You're a pilot!"

"In training," Fiona gently reminded her. "But look at you! Gathering medicinal plants, going on your first away mission. Even cooler than I am!"

Tom and Harry stood by the Doctor as the EMH captured their reunion with the holoimager.

"That's one for the scrapbook," the Doctor smiled.

Tom and Harry both looked at him in concern and said, "Scrapbook?!"

"Relax," the Doctor rolled his eyes. "I was speaking metaphorically. Though that isn't really a bad idea. _Days in the Delta Quadrant: A Voyager Scrapbook_."

"Come on, you two. Let's get back up to Voyager." Tom pushed them back into the class-2 shuttle.


	16. Captain Proton: Episode Two

Tom, Harry, Chakotay, Neelix, and the Doctor sat in mess hall late that night. Few patrons were at the hall. They were playing poker, something they had done often during their trip through the Void.

"Glad you could join us, Doc," Harry smiled as he dealt the first round.

The Doctor nodded. "How could I resist?"

Harry handed out the cards as the others chatted.

"So, Fiona and Myral?" Chakotay asked the Doctor and Tom. "How'd they do today?"

"Quite well," the Doctor nodded with a small smile. "She's certainly eager to learn."

"Fiona's a natural pilot," Tom added enthusiastically. "She's at _home_ in a shuttlecraft."

Harry nodded in agreement. "She was excellent on her first flight."

Chakotay turned to Neelix. "And Shara? How's he doing?"

Neelix grinned. "Great! Shara's been hanging out with Naomi more and more, too, which is nice."

"Ante up," Harry told them as he finished dealing.

Everyone threw in their starting chips. Tom smirked at his hand, but no one could tell if it was purposeful bluffing, or an unintended expression.

"Tom?" Harry asked, as he was first next to the dealer.

"Two," Tom decided, handing in a pair of cards for a new pair. Then he turned to Chakotay. "What _I_ want to know is why the Captain even agreed to let us train these three."

Chakotay shrugged. "It made sense. And it gives you something to do _other_ than Captain Proton," he added with a smirk.

"You certainly have taken a hearty interest in her training," the Doctor observed as he asked for three cards. "Does B'Elanna mind?"

Tom glared and scoffed. "I _love_ B'Elanna. Training Fiona is just fun."

"A new project?" Neelix asked, feigning innocence as he took a single card.

Tom rolled his eyes and objected. "No! No... I don't know!"

"You're certainly a mentor for her on board," Chakotay replied to him as he took three cards. "Like a brother."

Harry smirked at Tom. They had had a very similar conversation earlier after returning to Voyager. "Dealer takes two."

Tom was speechless and snorted. "Let's make this interesting. Holodeck hours. Everyone in?"

"Deal."

Tom nodded. "I bet two hours, 1800-2000 hours tomorrow."

"I'll match your two with my hours on Saturday," the Doctor agreed. "And raise you another one."

"Oooo," Harry smirked. "That's dangerous."

"I fold," Neelix shook his head with a frown.

Chakotay sighed and agreed, "Same for me."

Harry decided to match the three. "I call."

The Doctor revealed pairs of aces and queens. Tom revealed his own hand, a straight. But Harry revealed a full house.

"Thank you!" Harry smiled as he passed around a padd for them to transfer their holodeck hours.

Chakotay stood and stretched. "That was the last round for me tonight."

"Good night, commander," Harry nodded as the other bid him a good sleep as well.

"Well, I have samples to analyze." The Doctor also stood and bid farewell. He walked out to head to sickbay.

Neelix smiled. "And _I'm_ going to bed."

This left just Harry and Tom. They cleaned up the cards and poker chips, placing them in Tom's special poker set. They worked in silence until Harry spoke up.

"She's turning into a little sister," Harry smirked as they put the last few poker chips away.

Tom laughed lightly for a moment and shook his head. "I'm not exactly the best role model."

Harry shrugged as they left the mess hall and went to their quarters. "She could do worse."

Tom rolled his eyes. "Thanks, friend."

"But seriously, Tom," Harry shook his head. "I think this is good for you. Might teach you something about responsibility."

"I _am_ responsible!" He objected immediately.

Harry laughed and shook his head. "Good night, Tom."

He left Tom at his door and walked down to his own. Tomorrow they would leave orbit of this class-M moon and continue on their journey home. He knew that both Fiona and Myral were sort of bummed to be leaving orbit, but it was necessary. There were new star systems to explore, new problems to run into.

Over the next several days, the bridge was a bright and happy place as Voyager made their way home again. Tom and B'Elanna spent several hours on the holodeck and had a couple dinner dates, Harry enjoyed his plethora of holodeck hours to play various nonsensical but enjoyable programs, and the others were just as happy.

" _Paris to Bishop."_

Fiona was frantically changing into her dress and shoes, hopping up and down as she tried to put them on her feet. "Fiona here, I'm on my way, Tom!"

" _Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid are eagerly awaiting the attendance of Lady Celestial!"_

Fiona chuckled, doing the finishing touches to her hair and makeup. "Roger that."

All finished, she grabbed her combadge from off her cadet uniform and slipped it under her shall so it wasn't visible. Her shoes, now a nice pair of boots, clicked on the floor of the deck as she ran down the corridor to a turbolift.

"Holodeck 2," she ordered.

Tom Paris and Harry Kim were waiting outside the holodeck impatiently when the turbolift opened and Fiona came rushing down the corridor, dodging an engineer that was walking there too. She apologized and continued on.

"Sorry! Sorry," she breathed harshly as she tried to catch her breath. "Sorry."

Harry chuckled and hit the button to begin the program. The computer announced it.

" _Chapter 39, House of Horrors."_

Fiona cocked an eyebrow and looked at them. It was nearing Halloween, a human holiday she had read about, and she wondered if that's why such a chapter was chosen.

"Halloween?" she asked them, stepping inside the holodeck into the Captain Proton simulation.

Tom nodded with a smile, eagerly heading inside. He ran over to his rocket ship's mainscreen. Harry followed him, watching the screens flash before his eyes.

"We have a message from Chaotica coming in," Tom called out.

" _Captain Proton! How exciting. I hope you don't mind a little… diversion!"_ Chaotica said through the transmitter.

"There's an incoming laser beam!" Fiona shouted from where she stood at scanners. "Brace yourselves!"

The blast hit the rocket ship, sending them bouncing around. No one was injured, but the ship was going down.

"There's a planet right nearby!" Harry called to Tom. "We need to land!"

"Agreed," Tom nodded. "Trajectory laid in."

Fiona and Harry watched out the front window the rocket ship as it began its descent into the planet's atmosphere. Tom was trying to keep the ship steady. He ordered them to hold on as they were about to crash land.

The landing was rocky but over all, Tom, or _Captain Proton,_ managed to keep it in one piece and in relatively good shape. Fiona, Harry, and Tom left the ship, looking around curiously. The surrounding territory was forested, but all the trees, dead. Ahead of them was a Gothic castle, but it had technology, too.

"I'm guessing that's the house of horrors," Tom murmured. "Come on, let's go!"

Captain Proton, Buster Kincaid, and Lady Celestial climbed out of the trees and met with a road. Up they went, towards the Gothic fortress, until they came upon the door.

"No resistance yet," Harry muttered. "Not sure whether that is good or bad?"

"Probably bad," Fiona echoed.

Tom took out his ray gun and opened the door. He jumped inside and saw something that amazed him.

"That's me!" he cried out.

Harry and Fiona followed, their own guns out. They saw copies of themselves in the room as well. Fiona gasped as a black cat ran across the room.

"It's so cute!" She smiled and clapped her hands together. "I want one!"

As she moved forward, Harry and Tom both grabbed her arms. They shook their heads in caution.

"Careful! This could be the rumored "Mirrorized Weaponry Chaotica was working on." Tom looked around carefully.

"What's it do?" Fiona asked.

As they walked forward, Tom shrugged. He wasn't exactly sure. He came upon the copy of himself and tapped it. He jumped back in pain.

"It's got some kind of reactionary armor," he muttered.

Fiona laughed. "What does that even mean?"

Harry leaned over. "I'm pretty sure Tom is making this up as he goes along."

Tom scoffed. "Not true!"

" _Janeway to Paris."_

"Computer freeze program," Tom muttered before responding to the Captain. "Go ahead."

" _You and Ensign Kim are needed in the briefing room right away."_

"Aye, Captain," he nodded.

Fiona frowned as Tom shrugged in defeat. He instructed the computer to end the program and he and Harry hurried out. Fiona was left standing in the empty holodeck.


	17. Proto-Nebulae

Tom and Harry quickly walked through the corridor over to the turbolift. Still dressed in their Captain Proton costumes, but harboring zero shame, the best friends took the turbolift to deck one and walked over to the briefing room.

"Sorry we're late," Harry apologized to everyone gathered there.

Janeway smiled and shook her head. "It's alright, Harry." She gestured for he and Tom to sit.

"We picked up some exciting readings on sensors," Chakotay began. "Indications of proto-nebula formation."

"We need an away-team to take the Flyer and investigate," explained the Captain. "Volunteers?"

In the end, Tom, B'Elanna, the Doctor, and Seven all decided to go. The Doctor was especially excited for the mission. He made his way back to sickbay eagerly.

"Myral!" he bellowed as he walked into sickbay. "Do you know where my holoimager is?"

"I have it." The Bajoran woman smiled walking over with the holoimager in hand. "I was using it to keep track of plant growth."

"I'll be needing it for my away mission," the Doctor explained.

"Oh? What kind of away mission?" Myral asked, intrigued.

The Doctor grinned. "Proto-nebula formation! A fascinating type of phenomenon."

"Well, have a good time," Myral told him as she handed over the holoimager. "Take lots of pictures!"

"I plan to." He nodded with a smile.

Gathering a few other instruments and packing them into a medkit, the Doctor left sickbay to go find Seven of Nine. Myral instead was left to tend to the couple of experiments in Sickbay.

Fiona was in her quarters, changing into her cadet uniform. She was bummed that they hadn't been able to finish the Captain Proton simulation, but she would be fine. When she had changed, she decided to head back to the holodeck to get some flight practice in.

"Cadet Bishop?" came a small voice behind her as Fiona walked towards the holodeck.

Fiona spun around and looked in surprise upon Naomi Wildman. "What do you need, Naomi?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Shara was?" asked the little half Ktarian girl.

Fiona smiled softly. "Did you try the mess hall?"

"Yes," nodded Naomi. "He wasn't there."

Fiona spoke to the ship. "Computer, locate Shara."

" _Shara is in his quarters."_

"Bishop to Shara," she said next. "Shara, respond."

" _What do you want, Fi?"_ came an annoyed male voice over the comm.

Fiona smirked. "There's a little girl here looking for you."

She smiled as they heard Shara scramble around. He said, " _Tell her I'll be there soon!"_

"Naomi to Shara," peeped the little girl over the comm. "I'll be in the mess hall."

" _Sounds good."_

Fiona smiled wide when Naomi thanked her and ran off to get her kadis-kot board. The cadet continued on to the holodeck. She had a shuttle to catch.

"Computer activate program Bishop-Alpha-6."

" _Program active."_

The young woman went inside and sighed in happiness. She stood inside a recreation of Voyager's shuttle bay. Tom Paris and Tabor Jad had put this together for her training purposes.

Climbing into a class-2 shuttle, Fiona opened the shuttle bay doors and began the pre launch sequence. A few panel taps, a few buttons presses, and she started the thruster sequence.

"Three...two...one…" she murmured.

The flight had begun.

Fiona spent an hour at least in the holodeck. She loves flying, but she also missed her other task from Xenil 5: building and fixing ships. She knew Tom wanted to construct a ship, some kind of new shuttle, but his request kept getting denied.

She decided she would take a nap. Captain Janeway had said she could pilot the bridge on night shift with Harry tonight, so long as another pilot was standing by at the ready. And so she headed to her room on Deck 2.

While Fiona slept, Myral got an unexpected visitor in Sickbay. Late into the afternoon, the Doctor appeared without warning. He refused to give any sort of explanation, running instead right over to his desk and contacting Transporter Room One.

"Sickbay to transporter room one. Report." The Doctor insisted.

" _It looks like some of your emitter circuits were fused during transport,"_ came B'Elanna's reply.

The Doctor frantically replied. "Can you repair it?!"

" _Most likely. I'll need to run a diagnostic on it."_

"Most likely?" The Doctor was more frantic by the minute.

" _Relax, Doctor. I'll keep you posted."_

The Doctor terminated the video link. He looked very unhappy, as Myral supposed was only natural. The Doctor had come to rely on his mobile emitter. It gave him freedom. If it was damaged…

"Did you get any good photos, Doctor?" Myral queried, trying to get his mind off the damaged technology.

The Doctor sighed, spinning around in his chair to face her. "A few. But we were forced to pull out early."

"Why?" She asked, coming over and looking at the holoimager the Doctor offered to her.

The Doctor scoffed. "Seems the proto-nebula was too much for our shuttle to handle. We required an emergency beam out. And now we're short a shuttle."

"That's not good," she frowned. "So the emitter was damaged during transport?"

"Yes." The Doctor sighed. "You're free to go, Myral. It's past dinner."

"Thanks," she grinned. "See you tomorrow, Doc!"

As she grabbed a late dinner with Shara, Fiona made her way to the bridge. She was dressed in her cadet uniform and looked rather dapper. She passed Tom on her way to the turbolift.

"Where are _you_ going?" He asked her in surprise.

She smirked. "The Captain is letting me do night shift with Harry tonight."

"Don't rock the ship too much," he warned sarcastically, "I want to get a good night's sleep!"

Fiona rolled her eyes. She continued on her way to the turbolift and took it up a deck to the bridge. When she got there, Commander Chakotay, Tuvok, and Harry stood talking.

"Cadet Bishop reporting for duty," she nodded to them.

Commander Chakotay gave a her soft smile. "Good luck, cadet."

"Hopefully I'm not too much trouble for Ensign Kim." She smiled at them eagerly.

"I have faith that Ensign Kim can handle a cadet," Tuvok said assured her.

The two of them left the bridge, leaving Harry in charge as the night shift began.

"Well?" Harry nodded with a smile. "Take your station, cadet."

"Aye, sir!"


	18. Uninvited Guests

Fiona felt the smoothness of the console and imagined her hands flying across the controls. But it was supposed to be a simple enough night tonight. She looked out the view screen and smiled. _Space._ The final frontier.

Suddenly a few beeps went off at the Ops station. The ensign there, Ensign Fyroni, looked over the readings.

"Ensign?" Harry asked quickly.

He responded immediately, "The proto-nebula's shearline is increasing."

"Cadet," Harry nodded to her. "Back us off. Adjust course to compensate."

Fiona felt her skin crawl. Her palms got sweaty and she felt herself shaking. But she knew what to do. It was just a basic maneuver.

She quickly typed in a few instructions for the computer and made the necessary course adjustment. After the modifications, she stared at her console for a moment, praying she had done the right procedure. Finally she turned to face Harry and he shot her a smirk and a nod. Instantly she felt better. She had reassurance.

The hours went by. Harry held a tight shift, even during these night hours. Fiona, unlike a few others on the bridge, didn't mind it. It gave her a chance to practice her Starfleet protocols.

"Helm, status report?" Harry asked halfway through the night shift.

"Course is steady," responded Fiona.

Harry nodded and turned behind. "Ops?"

"Engines working fine, nothing on sensors," the man told Ensign Kim.

Harry nodded in satisfaction. Through the night, Fiona had to make quite a few course adjustments but in the end, it really had been a rather simply night. Once she got past the first nervous energy, it all fell into place.

The next morning, Commander Chakotay arrived to relieve them. Fiona was tired and wanted to grab some sleep before she had to report to the Doctor for a psychological follow up.

Harry stood and addressed the commander. "Commander. How'd you sleep?"

Chakotay shrugged. "Well enough. What's new?"

Harry replied with an enthusiasm that pleasantly surprised Fiona. "That nebula's expanding at a rate of eight thousand cubic kilometres per hour. I've had to adjust course eleven times."

The commander smiled and nodded first at Fiona and then replied to Harry. "Sounds like you're enjoying the big chair."

"It's not a bad way to spend the night," Harry agreed.

"I hear you've been doing a fine job. The crew's impressed." Commander Chakotay praised him and then winked at Fiona. "Is it true you make them call you Captain Kim?"

Fiona noted that Seven of Nine entered the bridge as Harry protested to the commander. Relieved of duty, she stood and joined Harry.

Chakotay greeted Seven. "Good morning."

She looked at them with apprehension. "That remains to be seen."

Chakotay voiced their confusion. "Problem?"

"The proximity transceiver in my cranial implant has been activated." Fiona froze as Seven continued. "That could indicate a Borg presence nearby."

Suddenly the bridge was in a state of palpable concern. Commander Chakotay turned to the Ensign.

"Harry?"

The man shook his head. "I've been running sensor sweeps all night. I haven't seen anything."

Fiona knew this to be true. Every hour or half hour, Harry had demanded updates. There was no way the Borg were near. She hoped.

Seven was unsatisfied. "Perhaps the nebula is masking a vessel."

"No, not a chance. A ship wouldn't last ten seconds in there. Not even a Borg cube." Harry shook his head vehemently.

"Maybe it's a false alarm. Your transceiver could be malfunctioning." Chakotay shrugged.

Seven hesitated before nodding. "It is possible."

"Why don't you pay a visit to Sickbay. In the meantime we'll redouble our scans, just to be sure," Chakotay suggested.

Seven nodded. "Very well."

Harry quickly added, "I'll get the scans underway."

Chakotay smirked and nodded to him. "If you don't mind being an Ensign again."

Fiona chuckled and Chakotay turned to her, raising an eyebrow. "And if _you_ don't mind going back to training, Cadet."

"Not at all, sir," she smiled and nodded.

"How _was_ your first shift?" Commander Chakotay asked her with a smile. "Enjoy the pilot's seat?"

"Yes!" she nodded and admitted, "I was so scared I was going to screw up."

Harry chipped in from Ops. "She did great!"

Fiona blushed slightly and shook her head. "It wasn't difficult once I got past my initial nervousness."

"That's good to hear," nodded the Commander.

Suddenly Harry interrupted them. "Looks like someone's rerouting power from the warp conduits."

"To where?" Chakotay demanded.

The Ops officer tapped a few buttons, trying to pinpoint it. "Deck eight, section twenty two. The science lab."

Fiona looked confused. Why would someone in the Science Lab be tapping into the warp core?

Chakotay immediately tapped his combadge. "Bridge to science lab. Ensign Mulchaey, respond."

The crewmembers on the bridge exchanged worried and confused glances. Fiona wondered what she should do, whether or not she should leave or stay?

"Ensign?" Commander demanded.

Harry looked alarmed as he read his data. "Sensors are being deflected by some kind of forcefield. Commander, the forcefield has a Borg signature!"

The Commander wasted no time. "Red alert. Captain to the bridge. Tuvok, take a security team to the science lab. Chakotay to Seven of Nine, looks like you were right."

Seven of Nine responded. " _Commander?"_

"We've detected Borg on the ship. Deck eight, science lab." Chakotay replied.

" _How many drones?"_

Chakotay shook his head. "Unknown, Tuvok's headed there now."

"I will join him."

Chakotay turned to Fiona. "Get to your quarters. Lie low. If there _are_ Borg you'll want to stay as far away as possible."

Fiona nodded, feeling her pulse elevate and her palms beginning to sweat. The Borg frightened her, as she supposed they frightened everyone. She ran to the turbolift and took it down a deck.

Down in sickbay Myral was comforting the Doctor. He was distressed over the fact that his mobile emitter was in the Science Lab, now presumably overrun by Borg.

"My mobile emitter is in there," the Doctor kept insisting. "What of the Borg have it?"

"It'll be fine," Myral assured him. "Fine, I promise!"

The Doctor looked at her in skeptical disapproval. "Without the mobile emitter I'm stuck here! I'm a prisoner behind these metal walls."

Myral rolled her eyes, facing away from the Doctor so he couldn't see. "Doctor, calm down. The bigger threat is the Borg themselves."

She herself was beginning to get antsy and frightened at the lack of news and the still red alert that was all around them. _Borg_. They scared her, a lot. She didn't remember her first encounter of them, but she remembered the fallout. She remembered the years without her parents, growing up as a stranger in Xenilian society. She remembered the pain the Borg has caused.


	19. Drone

_A/N: This chapter is during the episode "Drone" but since Drone is mostly Seven of Nine, there's less interaction that say in "Night", or in the next episode chapters. Next episode we read is going to be cool._

"I go to bed and wake up and suddenly you're telling me there's a 29th century Borg _drone_ onboard?" Fiona asked Harry in exasperation as they ate in the mess hall.

"Yep," Harry laughed lightly. "That about sums it up."

"What's he look like?" Fiona asked curiously.

"Like… a Borg?" Harry tried.

Shara came over, wiping his hands on his apron. He sat down next to them at the adjacent table and leaned in.

"Neelix is with him right now. I wonder what the drone is like?" Shara asked excitedly.

"We'll have to ask Myral later. She's probably in sickbay now," Fiona reasoned.

Harry nodded. "I'll look forward to it."

They devoured the rest of their meals. Tom was somewhere else, they weren't sure where. So they enjoyed a nice lunch by themselves.

Shara returned to his spot at the kitchen. He groaned when the doors opened and Ensign Clea came inside.

"Just the Andorian I was hoping to see," she said in mock sweetness.

Shara forced a smile. "What can I do for you, Clea."

"I was wondering if you have any more information on our new Borg member," she said sweetly. "I know your friend works in sickbay."

"Nothing yet," he shook his head. "I heard the drone's in Engineering right now though. If you'd be interested in checking."

Clea hesitated. "Thanks."

The Andorian ensign left the mess hall quickly, just as Ensign Tabor walked inside. The two spoke quietly for a second before Tabor continued on and joined Harry and Fiona.

"How are you two doing?" Tabor asked them, standing over them.

"Fine," Harry smiled. "Had a nice lunch that Shara prepared."

"The drone was in Engineering," Tabor told them, occupying the seat Shara had used. "He applied a multispatial algorithm to accurately predict the rate of expansion of the proto-nebula."

"How'd B'Elanna take it?" Harry smirked.

With a grin, Tabor told them she had been rather impressed. "At first she was very averse to having this drone in Engineering, but then helped out."

"Where's the drone now?" Fiona asked him.

"Bridge," Tabor replied. "Apparently the Captain wanted to see him."

A few hours went by. Fiona and Tabor took a walk through the Shire on the holodeck to pass the time before their respective shifts. She enjoyed spending time with Tabor. She very much liked him, and he her.

When they split to go their different ways two or three hours later, she waited for Tom to meet her for training. But that didn't happen. Suddenly the ship went to red alert.

Fiona sped to her quarters, almost running into Tom as she did so when _he_ was running to the bridge. She apologized and he apologized, but it was all business.

"Ensign Zirael!" called Fiona as she saw the Cardassian Human hybrid woman making her way to her station. "What's going on?"

"Borg," was the response she got.

Fiona felt afraid, but tried not to let it show. She hurried on her way to Deck Two crew quarters and hid herself in her room. She had to stay out of the way, as this was her "job" as cadet during a red alert status.

Suddenly the deck shook, and she scrambled to reach her bed. She watched out the window and caught her first glimpse of the Borg out in space.

Memories flashed before her eyes. She had been three when the Borg had first attacked the USS Shenandoah, but now she recalled it more fully. The green glow, the multi-voiced communication. She nearly fainted as the memories rushed in.

But she continued to watch as the Borg exchanged fire with Voyager. Another blast sent Fiona falling back onto her bed, and another and another. But then it stopped. She watched in amazement as the Borg vessel diverted course and flew into the proto-nebula.

And exploded.

The red alert stood down. Fiona ventured from her room and made her way to the mess hall to see if Shara would have any news. But on her way, Chakotay called her.

" _Chakotay to Cadet Bishop."_

"Bishop here sir," she responded.

" _Report to the Bridge. You'll be assisting in repairs of the Conn."_

"On my way." She nodded and went back inside her quarters to grab her tools before heading to the Bridge.

As she got there, she found Chakotay, Harry, and Tom there of the regular bridge officers. She walked over to the Conn and lay down under it to see what was wrong.

"Nice flying, Tom," she smiled at him as she crawled under his workstation. "I didn't get hurt this time."

He snorted. "Yeah well last time was on you. I'm _always_ a good pilot."

Fiona smirked and used a hyperspanner to begin repairing damaged systems and bypassing the irreparable ones. Tom stood to the side, chatting with Harry.

" _Janeway to Bridge. One is dead."_

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around. Fiona relaxed One, the drone, must've impressed these people to cause this much discomfort at learning of his death.

"Understood," Chakotay sighed in response to the Captain.

"Seven's not going to take that well," Tom sighed.

Chakotay nodded in agreement but said nothing. He checked in remotely on his damage control teams. All systems were to be up and running before long.

"Fiona?" asked Chakotay. "How's Conn coming along?"

"Almost done, Commander." She smiled as she slid back out from under it and tapped a few buttons on top to test it out. "There we go. Good as new."

"Good. You and Tom can go continue your training now that this threat is over with." Chakotay nodded to Tom. "Go on."

"Right," Lieutenant Paris nodded and walked over to the turbolift with Fiona.

"What was One like, Tom?" Fiona asked him on their way down to Holodeck 2.

Tom shrugged. "Uh.. well… he was kind of like Seven, but less of an individual. He had a good personality though."

"How did he die?"

Tom frowned. "The Borg were about to finish us off. He beamed aboard their vessel and took them into the proto-nebula."

"Oh," she nodded.

"Come on." The doors opened and Tom pushed her forward. "We're moving on to much more advanced maneuvers today."

Fiona felt excited and followed him into the holodeck. The program Paris activated was "Fiona-Delta-1." She felt nervous. They were now in the Delta training programs.

"Here we go," she muttered.


	20. Double Date

"That wasn't so bad," Fiona huffed as she tried to catch her breath. She had successfully maneuvered away from a Malon freighter that was firing spacial charges.

Tom nodded. "I'll admit, I'm impressed."

"Well, I did race shuttles for a living on Xenil 5, Tom. I had to avoid my share of bumps." Fiona smirked as they shut down the program and left the holodeck.

Tom scoffed. "Low atmosphere shuttles don't compare to flying a space battle."

"I agree. When you can't just fly off in any direction, it's more difficult," she smirked at him with a wink.

Tom protested this. "Excuse me, but open space shuttlecraft have a lot more to control than low atmosphere ones."

"What are you two arguing about?" asked an approaching Commander Chakotay.

"What's harder Commander," Lieutenant Paris stopped to ask. "Battling in space or low atmosphere?"

"Low atmosphere for sure," the Commander replied with a smile at Fiona.

"That's ridiculous!" Tom shook his head and threw his hands up. "You two have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't you have dinner with Lieutenant Torres?" Fiona pushed him forward.

Tom nodded and walked to his quarters. "Yeah. I'll see you later."

She waved goodbye and turned to the Commander. "Thank you sir."

"Sometimes Tom needs to be put in his place," Chakotay smiled. "Now, if I recall, we put you on tonight's night shift again."

"Yes sir! I'm grabbing dinner with Shara, Tabor and Myral, and then reporting for duty." She nodded and continued to the mess hall

"A double date?" Chakotay chuckled as he walked with her until his quarters.

Fiona blushed, shrugging. "Something like that."

"Give them my regards." Chakotay told her goodbye as he entered his quarters.

Fiona nodded and smiled, waving goodbye. She smoothed her cadet uniform down and ran her fingers through her brown hair to get rid of any tangles. Then she walked inside the mess hall.

"Fiona!" Neelix said with a grin. "Your friends are right over there."

She followed his pointing hand to a far table. Tabor, Shara, and Myral were there already. Fiona smiled and waved, walking over.

"Hey Fiona," Tabor smiled.

"Tabor," she grinned.

Myral and Shara went to get their food first, leaving Fiona and Tabor at the table. This was their first double date, and Fiona's third date with Tabor.

"How was training with Tom Paris?" Tabor asked her after a moment.

She laughed lightly. "Let's just say I surprised him."

"Well that's good. Tom is hard to surprise." Tabor grinned back. "But he ceases to surprise no one."

"Yeah," she chuckled. "That's certainly true."

Myral and Shara came back with whatever Neelix had concocted for the evening. Myral muttered that she almost used her replicator rations instead that night.

"It can't be _that_ bad," Fiona laughed.

She and Tabor got their meals too. When they sat back down, Tabor spoke.

"This isn't so bad," he mumbled through a bite.

Fiona chuckled at him.

"What?" He objected.

"You're just funny," she shook her head. "And cute."

"Okay," he laughed.

Myral and Shara laughed along as Tabor started to as well. They are their meal together, a nice double date. When the time came for Fiona to head to the Bridge, she bid farewell. Tabor stood immediately and went to walk with her.

"I enjoyed our dinner, Fi." Tabor smiled, taking her hand as they walk through the officers' hallway.

She smiled, blushing. "Me too."

Tabor hesitated. They had never kissed before. Fiona blushed as they stood in the hallway by the turbolift. Finally Tabor leaned in and kissed her.

Clapping was heard down there hallway.

"Tom," gasped B'Elanna who was with him. "Stop!"

Tabor and Fiona split apart. Fiona's face grew red, bright red.

"Tom Paris!" She glared at him with such hatred.

Tabor was annoyed as well. But this time he controlled his anger since Tom was a superior officer, even if they _were_ friends. But had they been in the Maquis...

"Nice job, Tabor," Tom smirked. "I never thought she'd let you do that."

B'Elanna, furious at her significant other, pushed him back inside his quarters. Tabor was holding back a livid Fiona. B'Elanna came over and apologized.

"I'm gonna kill him," Fiona sneered angrily.

"Get going," B'Elanna insisted. "I'll deal with Tom. Tabor, you have a shift in Engineering, don't you?"

"Yes," he muttered. "But if she doesn't kill him, I will."

Fiona glared and backed into the turbolift. "Bridge."

When she reached the command center, Harry, already in the command chair, smirked at her. "You're two minutes late, cadet."

"Blame Lieutenant Paris," she said angrily, sitting down at Conn.

Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise. He'd never seen her so angry. He felt almost too afraid to ask. _Almost._

"What'd Tom do?" Harry asked as he walked up to Conn.

Fiona squeezed her fists. "He's a despicable human being."

When that was all he could get out of her, he went back to the command chair. The hours proceeded as usual.

"Helm, update?" Harry prompted.

"Steady at Warp 6, sir," Fiona told him.

By the time the shift had ended, Fiona still felt irritated with Tom. As the morning shift came in, Tom hesitated when Fiona stormed past him. Janeway and Chakotay both looked at Tom in surprise. Usually the two pilots bantered for several minutes.

"What'd you do?" Harry hissed to his friend as he got ready to leave the bridge.

Tom laughed awkwardly. "I'll explain later."

"Tom, what's wrong with Fiona?" Chakotay asked him as Harry left the bridge.

"Apparently she didn't like a joke I made earlier." Tom muttered his reply. "But don't worry. B'Elanna made me perfectly well aware."

Chakotay nearly laughed at that. No matter what Tom had said, he was glad B'Elanna had put him in his place.

"Whatever you said, Tom, she certainly didn't appreciate it," the Captain smirked.

Tom huffed and didn't respond. He knew he'd screwed up. He didn't need his Captain to tell him that. That's what B'Elanna was for.

"Looks like the probe is coming along nicely," Chakotay told the Captain as he read a report from engineering.

"Good." Janeway nodded. "I want to launch our new probe in three days at the latest."

Tom let his mind wander to B'Elanna. She had been acting… reserved lately. He had hoped their dinner last night would've helped, but he got the feeling it hadn't. And then she hadn't been as angry at him as he'd thought she would've after Fiona's volatile reaction. He hoped nothing was wrong.

Meanwhile on the holodeck, B'Elanna was running a program.

"Computer! Disengage safety protocols!" She insisted this.

" _Warning, disengaging safety protocols presents extreme risk of injury."_

She paused for a moment before speaking.

"Override."


	21. Hot Rod

"Fiona!" Tom called to her as he caught sight of his cadet in the hallway on the way back from Engineering. "Fiona wait!"

"What do you want, Lieutenant?" She replied coldly, halting in her tracks but refusing to turn and face him.

He caught up with her after a moment. "Listen, about yesterday. It was just a joke."

"Hilarious," she deadpanned with a nod and a fake smile, walking with him down the corridor.

He sighed loudly. "Fiona!"

She turned and glared daggers at him. He saw the anger in her eyes and almost laughed. It was like seeing a mini-B'Elanna standing before him. But right now, Fiona's temper seemed more normal than his own girlfriend's.

"Alright," he muttered. "I'm sorry, okay?"

Fiona huffed and folded her arms. She narrowed her eyes as she looked up at him. She could tell he was honest but part of her didn't care. She noted that Harry came up behind Tom and she decided to make use of this moment.

"Lieutenant Paris. You're a wonderful pilot, and a good friend- usually." She noted he paused, and she continued. "But yesterday you crossed a line. And honestly, I don't want to be around you right now. So if you order me to do training, I'll do it. But that's about it."

Tom looked somewhat defeated. Harry, still not sure what went down between the two, merely cocked an eyebrow and watched as Fiona turned tail and left.

"So," Harry asked, placing a hand on Tom's shoulder, "what _exactly_ did you do?"

Tom brushed his hand off and shook his head, crossing his arms. "I made a _little_ joke when B'Elanna and I ran into Fiona and Tabor kissing."

Harry pinched his nose. "Oh, Tom."

"What?" He protested. "It was funny!"

"That was stupid!" Harry insisted. "You should know better."

"Alright, alright," Tom nodded with a sigh. "So I screwed up. I get that."

"You _really_ screwed up," Harry chuckled. "Well, come on. Captain Proton awaits."

" _Without_ Lady Celestial?" Tom smirked and shook his head. "She's already mad, I don't want her to kill me."

"Good point," Harry nodded with a short laugh. "Let's go see how the probe is coming along."

"Great," Tom muttered. "I think Tabor's on duty right now."

Harry chuckled and patted Tom on the back. "Out of the frying pan, into the fire."

As it turned out, the probe was coming along nicely. It would be ready to launch in one day. B'Elanna wasn't in engineering, which Tom found odd. He figured she would be working overtime on the probe.

"Hey Tabor," Tom waved to the Ensign as they arrived in Engineering. "Come over here a second."

"What do you need, Lieutenant?" He asked coolly.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend either of you," Tom murmured to him, keeping his voice low.

Tabor glared but relented in the end. "Apology accepted."

With a relieved sigh, Tom continued. "Any idea where B'Elanna is?"

"No," the Bajoran Ensign shook his head. "She left about an hour ago."

Tom fell deep in thought. Why did he feel something was amiss? Why did something seem off.

"Computer, locate Lieutenant Torres," he said.

" _Lieutenant Torres is in her quarters."_

"I'll see you later," Tom told Ensigns Harry, Vorik, and Tabor.

Tom walked through the halls and rode a turbolift up to Deck Two. He found Myral and Shara leaving the mess hall and nodded his greeting without speaking.

Buzzing B'Elanna's door, he was actually surprised to see her come to the door.

"Hey," he smiled, leaning against the door frame.

She nodded. "Hi."

"So," he sighed, hesitating. "Uh, how's the probe coming along."

"Pretty well," was the response he got.

Tom looked at her carefully. Why was she not speaking to him? It had been like this for several days, and had worsened over the past two weeks.

"Tom, I really need to work on something. I'll see you later," she nodded.

Tom looked slightly hurt but nodded. "Okay. Let me know if you need anything."

"I won't. Don't worry," she said with a decidedly fake smile.

When the door had closed before him, he stepped back and crossed his arms. _What_ was going on? At least he knew why Fiona wasn't speaking to him.

He was thankful that by tomorrow she _was._ She still wasn't entirely happy with him, she made that _perfectly_ clear. But she wasn't furious. Just annoyed. After their training session the next day, he even saw her laugh.

And then he had great news.

" _Cadet Bishop, report to Holodeck 1."_

She was in the middle of dinner that day when Tom ordered her to the holodeck. With a sigh, she stuck her plate back with Neelix and Shara before nodding farewell and heading to the holodeck.

"On my way," she responded.

When she arrived, she was surprised to find a small scale model of a shuttlecraft of some sort floating, surrounded by Seven, Tom, Harry, Tuvok, and B'Elanna.

"Reporting as ordered," she smiled and nodded to them.

"Remember the design plans I told you about for the new shuttle?" Tom excitedly came towards her.

"The… Delta Flyer?" Fiona nodded, walking towards the holoprojection.

Tom grinned and nodded. "Well, we need to build it."

Fiona's face lit up. She had built ships in the past, but the designs she knew Tom had drawn up were far beyond her expertise.

"Are we planning to integrate the multi-phasic shielding and Borg weaponry?" She asked immediately, walking around the projection. "What are we using to reinforce the hull?"

"I thought you'd want to help," Tom smirked. "Now. Let's get to work."

They worked for about an hour without any incident. But soon enough, Tom's design came into conflict with Tuvok's logic.

Tom walked near the projection. "Computer, add dynametric tail fins to the nacelles."

Fiona nodded slightly. She approved. But evidently Tuvok did not.

"Computer," Tuvok said, "delete dynametric tail fins."

Lieutenant Paris scoffed. "What'd you do that for?"

The chief security officer shook his head. "We are not designing a 'hot rod', Lieutenant."

Fiona chuckled, standing beside Harry, as Tom laughed humorlessly. "That is exactly what we're designing. A twenty fourth century, warp-powered, ultra-responsive hot rod."

"Your embellishments are purely decorative. They serve no practical purpose." Tuvok was still unconvinced.

Tom argued with him. "I beg to differ. If we make this thing look mean enough, other ships are going to think twice before taking us on."

Seven interrupted them. "I suggest we return our attention to the matter of structural integrity."

"Agreed." Tuvok nodded.

"Lieutenant Torres' hull design is flawed." Seven looked matter-of-factly at the chief engineer. "We should be using tetraburnium alloys instead of titanium."

Everyone froze. Surely B'Elanna would argue? If not outright have a verbal fight with Seven of Nine. But instead she looked distracted.

Harry spoke up. "Er, B'Elanna?"

"Sounds fine to me. I'm going to finish up the thruster specs." B'Elanna left the room.

After several moments of surprised silence, they continued their work. Fiona walked over and looked at the model.

"She's gonna be a beauty," Fiona smiled.

Tom nodded. "I'm even planning on adding physical buttons and levers like Captain Proton."

"It'd be nice to be able to feel the ship," agreed Fiona as they, together, walked around the model. "Touch pads are nice. But they lack substance."

Everyone had left, leaving the two pilots to finish up the last design elements on the inside. A small model of the inner side of the Delta Flyer was floating where the outside had once been.

"Listen," Tom stopped what he was doing. "I _am_ sorry."

With a sigh, Fiona finished up editing a console design. "I know. It's fine."

They both returned to their work before Tom stopped again.

"Have you noted anything odd about B'Elanna during your occasional engineering shifts?" He saved and shut down the program as they left the holodeck.

Fiona nodded. "Yes. She's been… frozen."

Tom was worried.


	22. Injury Report

"I just think it's cool, that's all," Fiona defended herself as she sat eating in the mess hall with Harry and Tom. "The Earth genre, Fantasy, it's fun."

The three companions had spent the day working on the shuttle and were finally at a point where they decided to get food. Harry's face was flushed, his hair messy. Tom was covered in grease and small burns. Fiona, some of her hair was singed on one side where she's got caught with a plasma torch. They looked horrible. But with a day left to go before they needed to launch, things were down to the wire.

"Hey, don't worry," Tom nodded. "I'm right there with you. Though their genre called "sci-fi" is more my thing."

"Sci-fi… Science fiction, right? Like Captain Proton?" Fiona nodded. "Funny how what they once thought to be fiction is now fact."

As they finished eating, they decided to head back to Delta Flyer. There was still a problem, a micro-fracture problem.

Harry walked across the inside of the Flyer. "I keep telling you, we've got to reinforce the hull with kellinite. That's all there is to it."

Fiona rolled her eyes as she worked on the communications device. Even _she_ knew that was pointless.

"Proposing the same flawed strategy over and over again will not make it more effective, Ensign," Tuvok deadpanned.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, we've _got_ to come up with something or we'll never get this thing off the ground."

As they worked, the various mechanical noises of power tools being used sounded through the Delta Flyer. One in particular began to hum, unpleasantly.

"Vorik," B'Elanna shouted angrily, "turn that damn thing off. I can't hear myself think."

The Vulcan Ensign cocked an eyebrow and apologized. "Sorry, sir."

Tom sighed. "Look, we could spend weeks trying to solve this, but we've got a ticking clock. Engines are working, weapons systems are online. I say we launch now and hope for the best."

Fiona stopped what she was doing and stared at her mentor. "Nice, Tom. Nice."

Echoing her sentiments, Tuvok responded in turn. "Mister Paris, that is perhaps the most illogical statement you've ever made. Unless we find a way to reconfigure the structural integrity field the hull will incur microfractures during descent."

"Yeah Tom, I really don't want to die," Fiona added.

"Microfractures!" Tom objected immediately with an eye roll directed at Fiona. "Doesn't necessarily mean we'll have a hull breach."

Tuvok cocked an eyebrow. "And if we do, I suppose these _useless_ design elements from your Captain Proton scenario will compensate for the problem."

Tom looked at him in exasperation, hoping Fiona would come to his aid. "Hey, every one of these knobs and levers is fully functional."

Tuvok shook his head. "And completely superfluous."

"Maybe to you." Tom was getting agitated. "I am tired of tapping panels. For once, I want controls that let me actually feel the ship I'm piloting. Fiona?"

"I have to agree with Tom, Commander," Fiona nodded.

Suddenly Harry spoke up, watching as B'Elanna left the Flyer. She had been quiet through the entire debate.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked in confusion.

She hesitated. "Holodeck."

"What for?" He responded.

She looked tired as she explained. "To find out if this microfracture problem is a fatal flaw."

The Delta Flyer's occupants went silent as she left. Tom felt uneasy at the way she had said "fatal." Fiona, too, felt unsure. Something about the way B'Elanna had be acted reminded herself of… well… herself. When she fell into depressive episodes, she acted a lot like current Lieutenant Torres. She decided it was time to say something.

"Tom." She gestured for him to follow her outside the Flyer.

He was confused but did as she prompted. He could tell this was something serious. So he followed her out of the shuttle and into the cargo hold.

"B'Elanna is depressed," Fiona whispered. "I can tell, I've seen the same expression in my own eyes. The question is, why?"

Tom shook his head. He had no idea. "She doesn't talk to me any more!"

"Well," Fiona hesitated. "Well something's wrong, Tom. You're her boyfriend. She loves you."

He sighed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Well, let's finish today's work up, first of all," Fiona reasoned. "Then we'll figure that out."

They got back to work on the Flyer. Half an hour later, Tuvok got a call that frightened them all.

" _Tuvok, report to the Bridge. And tell Lieutenant Paris to report to sickbay."_ Janeway told them. " _B'Elanna's been injured."_

Tom bolted out of the Delta Flyer and on to sickbay. When he arrived, he found Chakotay talking to Myral while the Doctor examined an unconscious B'Elanna on a bio bed.

"What happened?" Tom demanded, making his way over to Myral and Chakotay with haste.

Chakotay shook his head. "I found her injured and unconscious on the holodeck."

"How?" Tom asked incredulously. "Foul play?"

Myral shook her head. "The injuries we found seem to be from hitting her head on a console."

"Myral, come here," the Doctor ordered.

She quickly walked over, leaving Chakotay and Tom standing by themselves. The Doctor handed her a tricorder and told her to scan B'Elanna.

"These readings don't make any sense," she muttered. "Doctor? Is there something wrong with the tricorder?"

"No there isn't. I ran a diagnostic on it. Those readings are correct." The Doctor shook his head. "She's suffered over a dozen serious injuries over the past month, none of them treated by me."

"How could that be?" Myral murmured. "These were definitely treated by someone with a little experience in medicine."

"But not much," nodded the Doctor. "Check her cortisol levels."

Myral walked back over to where B'Elanna's head was. Tom and Chakotay watched in silence as the two medical personnel traded information.

"The levels are high," Myral nodded, her heart sinking. "And her prefrontal cortex readings are consistent with the working diagnosis."

"What diagnosis is that," Tom asked quietly, dreading the information to come.

"Clinical depression." The Doctor sighed. "Captain, please report to sickbay."

" _On my way."_

"You two will have to excuse us," the Doctor told Chakotay and Tom.

The two non-medical personnel left sickbay, concern plastered all over their faces. Myral turned to the Doctor.

"You think… you think Lieutenant Torres has been purposefully hurting herself?" asked Myral.

"She's certainly purposefully avoiding medical treatment." The Doctor walked into his office, leaving Myral standing beside B'Elanna.

Myral was sad. She knew what it was like, what Tom and Chakotay were going through. Her best friend had self-injured. A year-and- change free, Fiona was on a good stretch. But it was scary, never knowing if she'd relapse.


	23. Questions and Concerns

"I just think it's cool, that's all," Fiona defended herself as she sat eating in the mess hall with Harry and Tom. "The Earth genre, Fantasy, it's fun."

The three companions had spent the day working on the shuttle and were finally at a point where they decided to get food. Harry's face was flushed, his hair messy. Tom was covered in grease and small burns. Fiona, some of her hair was singed on one side where she's got caught with a plasma torch. They looked horrible. But with a day left to go before they needed to launch, things were down to the wire.

"Hey, don't worry," Tom nodded. "I'm right there with you. Though their genre called "sci-fi" is more my thing."

"Sci-fi… Science fiction, right? Like Captain Proton?" Fiona nodded. "Funny how what they once thought to be fiction is now fact."

As they finished eating, they decided to head back to Delta Flyer. There was still a problem, a micro-fracture problem.

Harry walked across the inside of the Flyer. "I keep telling you, we've got to reinforce the hull with kellinite. That's all there is to it."

Fiona rolled her eyes as she worked on the communications device. Even _she_ knew that was pointless.

"Proposing the same flawed strategy over and over again will not make it more effective, Ensign," Tuvok deadpanned.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, we've _got_ to come up with something or we'll never get this thing off the ground."

As they worked, the various mechanical noises of power tools being used sounded through the Delta Flyer. One in particular began to hum, unpleasantly.

"Vorik," B'Elanna shouted angrily, "turn that damn thing off. I can't hear myself think."

The Vulcan Ensign cocked an eyebrow and apologized. "Sorry, sir."

Tom sighed. "Look, we could spend weeks trying to solve this, but we've got a ticking clock. Engines are working, weapons systems are online. I say we launch now and hope for the best."

Fiona stopped what she was doing and stared at her mentor. "Nice, Tom. Nice."

Echoing her sentiments, Tuvok responded in turn. "Mister Paris, that is perhaps the most illogical statement you've ever made. Unless we find a way to reconfigure the structural integrity field the hull will incur microfractures during descent."

"Yeah Tom, I really don't want to die," Fiona added.

"Microfractures!" Tom objected immediately with an eye roll directed at Fiona. "Doesn't necessarily mean we'll have a hull breach."

Tuvok cocked an eyebrow. "And if we do, I suppose these _useless_ design elements from your Captain Proton scenario will compensate for the problem."

Tom looked at him in exasperation, hoping Fiona would come to his aid. "Hey, every one of these knobs and levers is fully functional."

Tuvok shook his head. "And completely superfluous."

"Maybe to you." Tom was getting agitated. "I am tired of tapping panels. For once, I want controls that let me actually feel the ship I'm piloting. Fiona?"

"I have to agree with Tom, Commander," Fiona nodded.

Suddenly Harry spoke up, watching as B'Elanna left the Flyer. She had been quiet through the entire debate.

"Where are you going?" Harry asked in confusion.

She hesitated. "Holodeck."

"What for?" He responded.

She looked tired as she explained. "To find out if this microfracture problem is a fatal flaw."

The Delta Flyer's occupants went silent as she left. Tom felt uneasy at the way she had said "fatal." Fiona, too, felt unsure. Something about the way B'Elanna had be acted reminded herself of… well… herself. When she fell into depressive episodes, she acted a lot like current Lieutenant Torres. She decided it was time to say something.

"Tom." She gestured for him to follow her outside the Flyer.

He was confused but did as she prompted. He could tell this was something serious. So he followed her out of the shuttle and into the cargo hold.

"B'Elanna is depressed," Fiona whispered. "I can tell, I've seen the same expression in my own eyes. The question is, why?"

Tom shook his head. He had no idea. "She doesn't talk to me any more!"

"Well," Fiona hesitated. "Well something's wrong, Tom. You're her boyfriend. She loves you."

He sighed. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Well, let's finish today's work up, first of all," Fiona reasoned. "Then we'll figure that out."

They got back to work on the Flyer. Half an hour later, Tuvok got a call that frightened them all.

" _Tuvok, report to the Bridge. And tell Lieutenant Paris to report to sickbay."_ Janeway told them. " _B'Elanna's been injured."_

Tom bolted out of the Delta Flyer and on to sickbay. When he arrived, he found Chakotay talking to Myral while the Doctor examined an unconscious B'Elanna on a bio bed.

"What happened?" Tom demanded, making his way over to Myral and Chakotay with haste.

Chakotay shook his head. "I found her injured and unconscious on the holodeck."

"How?" Tom asked incredulously. "Foul play?"

Myral shook her head. "The injuries we found seem to be from hitting her head on a console."

"Myral, come here," the Doctor ordered.

She quickly walked over, leaving Chakotay and Tom standing by themselves. The Doctor handed her a tricorder and told her to scan B'Elanna.

"These readings don't make any sense," she muttered. "Doctor? Is there something wrong with the tricorder?"

"No there isn't. I ran a diagnostic on it. Those readings are correct." The Doctor shook his head. "She's suffered over a dozen serious injuries over the past month, none of them treated by me."

"How could that be?" Myral murmured. "These were definitely treated by someone with a little experience in medicine."

"But not much," nodded the Doctor. "Check her cortisol levels."

Myral walked back over to where B'Elanna's head was. Tom and Chakotay watched in silence as the two medical personnel traded information.

"The levels are high," Myral nodded, her heart sinking. "And her prefrontal cortex readings are consistent with the working diagnosis."

"What diagnosis is that," Tom asked quietly, dreading the information to come.

"Clinical depression." The Doctor sighed. "Captain, please report to sickbay."

" _On my way."_

"You two will have to excuse us," the Doctor told Chakotay and Tom.

The two non-medical personnel left sickbay, concern plastered all over their faces. Myral turned to the Doctor.

"You think… you think Lieutenant Torres has been purposefully hurting herself?" asked Myral.

"She's certainly purposefully avoiding medical treatment." The Doctor walked into his office, leaving Myral standing beside B'Elanna.

Myral was sad. She knew what it was like, what Tom and Chakotay were going through. Her best friend had self-injured. A year-and- change free, Fiona was on a good stretch. But it was scary, never knowing if she'd relapse.


	24. To Hope or Not to Hope

_"Fiona!"_

The young woman shot up in bed and rubbed her eyes. Somehow she had fallen asleep without even taking her shoes off.

"What do you want, Myral?" Fiona yawned as she tapped her combadge.

" _Your shift starts in ten minutes! You missed dinner."_

Fiona groaned and leapt out of bed. She ran to put on a fresh uniform. "Thank you, Myr! I owe you!"

" _Just make sure you swing by and grab something to eat."_

Fiona assured the woman that she would. Jumping on one foot as she slipped into her boots, Fiona reattached her combadge and ran out the door. She stopped in the mess hall and grabbed a roll, waving at Myral and Shara, and then running to the turbolift for her night shift.

"Bridge," she ordered, taking a bite.

Upon arriving, she sped into the command center and jumped down the stairs to get to Conn. Tom was just settling in to the command chair and chatting with Chakotay.

"Look who got here in the nick of time," Lieutenant Paris teased. "I placed a bet you were going to be late."

"Sorry to disappoint," she rolled her eyes. "Cadet Bishop reporting for duty."

"Have a good shift, Cadet," Chakotay nodded as he walked to the turbolift. "Lieutenant, you have the bridge."

Fiona looked around the bridge. Ensign Clea, the Andorian who socialized often with Shara, was at Tactical. Ensign Fyroni had Ops. It was a solid crew, for the night shift. Tom looked rather bored in the Command chair, but he occupied himself by using a padd to do something Fiona wasn't sure what.

Half way through the night, Ensign Fyroni murmured something to himself as his console beeped. Tom looked back at him. The two men were decent friends.

"What's up, Fyroni?" Tom asked him.

The man shook his head. "I'm picking up a subspace transmission. It's Federation!"

"Source?" Tom asked.

"The Pendari system, six light years away," Ensign Fyroni told them.

Tom nodded. "Lieutenant Paris to Commander Chakotay."

" _Chakotay here."_

"Sir we've detected a subspace transmission with a Federation signature. Should I alter course?" Tom asked him over the comm.

" _Yes. Wake me again if there are further developments."_

"Fyroni, transmit the coordinates of the signal to the helm," Tom told him. "Cadet, take us there at Warp six."

"Warp six." Fiona nodded. After several minutes, she turned around looked at Tom who seemed preoccupied. "How could Federation be here?"

Tom snorted. "I've no idea. Don't get your hopes up."

"You think it's false?" Fiona looked confused.

Ensign Clea spoke up this time. "Odds are it's not real. What would Starfleet be doing out here?"

"Looking for you- for us!" Fiona insisted immediately.

The others shook their heads. After nearly five years in the Delta Quadrant, and only a single message from Starfleet months ago, they were skeptical about finding the Federation out here. Fiona sighed. She had hope.

In the morning, Tom and Fiona were relieved by the rest of the senior staff. Tom brought Chakotay and Janeway up to speed before leaving the bridge. Ensigns Clea and Fyroni had already left and Fiona waited for the turbolift.

When it finally arrived, Fiona walked inside and Tom quickly caught up with her.

"Deck Two," Fiona told the computer.

Tom turned to her. "You up for training this afternoon? Delta Flyer specs are in the holodeck now."

"Sure," she nodded. "But first I'm having breakfast."

"With Tabor?" Tom smirked.

Fiona rolled her eyes and snorted. "Here we go again."

"What!" Tom laughed. "I think it's funny."

"Goodbye," Fiona deadpanned as the turbolift doors opened onto Deck Two. Tom followed her.

"Hey!" He ran after her. "I need breakfast, too. I'll join you!"

Fiona ignored him. She wasn't meeting Tabor, in fact she was meeting Myral. But Tom didn't know that, and would find out soon enough. The corridor felt extra long today on the way to the mess hall. When she, followed by Tom Paris, walked inside she smelled all the wonderful foods and breathed in pleasantly.

"Myral!" Fiona waved to her friend as she went over and sat down.

"You said you were meeting Tabor," Tom protested.

"No," Fiona smirked. " _You_ said I was meeting Tabor."

"Hey Myral," Tom addressed the medical cadet.

"Hi Tom," she smiled. "Shara's coming too if you want to join us."

Tom shook his head. "I'm actually hoping to get B'Elanna for breakfast today."

"Bye Tom," Fiona teased as he walked out of the mess hall. She turned to Myral. "He thought I was meeting Tabor and wanted to crash my meal."

Myral chuckled. "I'm sorry to disappoint him."

They sat together for several minutes, chatting about how Myral's training with the Doctor was coming along. Shara was late, but as it turned out, he had been busy preparing pancakes for them that morning.

"Three stacks of chocolate chip pancakes," he said, very pleased with himself as he brought the food to their table.

Myral grinned. "You're amazing."

"Thanks," he smiled back, sitting down with them. "Neelix gave me the recipe a few days ago. Go on. Try it!"

Fiona ventured a bite and her face lit up. "These are delicious!"

"I thought you'd like them," Shara nodded with a gentle smile. "It's an earth dish."

"Speaking of Earth," Fiona began, taking another bite of the pancakes, "We picked up a transmission in subspace with a Federation signature."

"Really?" Myral asked excitedly. "That's wonderful!"

"That's what I said!" Fiona nodded emphatically. "But the other officers on the bridge are sure it's fake."

Shara looked confused. "Why? I mean, Starfleet _is_ looking for is, right?"

"I think they're just being cynical," Fiona insisted.

"And you're being naïve," said a smooth voice coming up to them. The blue skin of an Andorian betrayed Clea.

"Oh?" Fiona glared. "Would it kill anyone to have a little hope around here?"

"Actually yes, often it ends in death. Running headlong into something you don't understand," Clea nodded. "Just be careful, Cadet. Something tells me this isn't right."


	25. A Good Book

_A/N: Huge apologies for the delay in updating. I have been going through a very rough emotional period right now in my life which made me put a halt to writing. Hopefully I'm back now though! So enjoy this extra long chapter._

That night, after a good six or seven hours of sleep, Fiona woke and took a nice sonic shower. The sonic shower was one of her favorite things she had come to love on board Voyager. The pulsating tones that just evaporated the dirt and grime off her body was to die for.

Once that was done with, she slipped into pajamas and a soft, blue robe. Tonight she wanted to wind down. No duties, no company. Just her and the stars and maybe a book. She had recently begun reading a book called "A Study in Scarlet." Suggested to her by Tuvok, according to the Vulcan it was "remarkably logical… for human literature." It was a detective novel through and through. Fiona was thoroughly enjoying Sherlock Holmes' first novel by sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Fiona retrieved the book from her night stand next to her bed and walked out into her common room. She sat down, curled up on the couch in her blue silk robe and cracked open the book.

_Buzz._

She sighed at the sound of the door chime. Who would be calling at this hour? It was nearly midnight on board.

"It's open," she invited.

The door slid wide and in walked Shara. In his hands was a plate of food and a drink: chocolate chip pancakes and milk. He smiled softly.

"You missed lunch and dinner," he explained, setting down the food and sitting opposite her on a chair. "I thought I'd bring you something not replicated."

Fiona smiled at him. "Thanks. It looks delicious!"

"I talked to Harry and Tom tonight when they came to the mess hall," Shara began. "Turns out it wasn't Starfleet after all."

Fiona's heart sank, but not unexpectedly. "Really? What was the signal then?"

"They aren't really sure." He stood up, took the book from her hands, and shoved a fork in it's place. "Eat."

Fiona rolled her eyes but sat up and began to eat the pancakes. "If they aren't sure, what are they going to do about it?"

"Investigate of course," Shara smirked at her. "Tom and Harry and Chakotay are taking the Delta Flyer out tomorrow. Voyager has been hidden behind a moon."

"Hidden from what?" Fiona was intrigued now as she dug into her chocolate chip pancakes and drank her perfectly chilled milk. "What's out there?"

Shara leaned in. "There's some kind of space station, or installation. According to Tom, the rotating shields should mask their approach in the Flyer, and they hope to take some better readings. But, one thing's for certain. It isn't Starfleet." Shara paused. "A Study in Scarlet. What's this about?"

Fiona was thrown off by his change of topic for a moment before responding. "It's a detective novel from late nineteenth century Earth. Commander Tuvok suggested it to me."

"Nice." Shara nodded before leaning in again. "But anyways, it's all very mysterious. Who would be making Starfleet transmissions out in the Delta Quadrant."

"Sherlock Holmes would figure it out," Fiona smirked.

Shara cocked his head in confusion before he nodded. "Sure." He stood to go. "I'll leave you be then. I've got to get to bed. I'm exhausted."

"Good night, Shara," Fiona smiled. "Thank you for the food!"

As he left, Fiona reached over and grabbed her book from where he'd set it down on the glass table. She opened it to where it had been left off.

" _CHAPTER VII. LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS._

" _The intelligence with which Lestrade greeted us was so momentous and so unexpected, that we were all three fairly dumfoundered."_

She continued reading for another hour or so. The low level lights pleasantly cast shadows across her sitting room and she loved the touch of her silk robe on her skin. But soon she felt herself slowly drifting to sleep on the couch and closed her book. Recycling the plate and glass in the replicator, she slowly meandered into her bedroom and shut the door. With a huff, she climbed into bed and sunk deep into the comfort of the sheets. She was out within minutes.

In the wee hours of the morning, around six, her door sounded. Fortunately she had been up and about already, clothed still in pjs and her silk robe. She went and opened the door, running a hand through her hair, expecting to see Tom, or Harry, or Shara and Myral. But instead it was Commander Chakotay.

"Good morning, cadet," he nodded.

She looked up at him in surprise. "Commander!"

"Captain wants you on shift on the bridge. We're stationary right now and she wants to observe your progress with Lieutenant Paris on an away mission." He smiled at her surprised reaction.

She nodded. "Of course, sir! I'll be right up!"

With a nod, Chakotay left her to change and get ready. Fiona turned and all but ran into her room to change into her uniform, leaving her pajamas and robe in a bundle on her unmade bed as she pulled on her socks and then boots. She was so flustered when she could only find one white sock and one black sock, but she supposed it didn't really matter.

At last she slapped on her combadge and headed out the door. Down the hall she walked, hurrying to the turbolift.

" _Paris to Cadet Bishop."_

Fiona answered as she stepped inside the lift. "Bishop here. Go ahead Tom."

" _Good luck in the chair today. I hope the Captain goes easy on you."_

"Don't get yourself killed," she replied with a soft smile. "I'd hate to take your job that way."

" _See you for training tomorrow."_

The turbolift finally opened on the bridge and Fiona, arms behind her back, walked inside. The nightshift commander was still briefing the Captain on what had been going on that night, so Fiona wasn't late. She walked up to Conn and relieved the ensign who was there.

As she settled into her chair, she looked over and saw Lieutenant Ayala at Ops and Tuvok at Tactical. Tuvok nodded to her, perhaps sensing her apprehension. She flashed him a small smile before turning to her console.

" _Chakotay to Bridge. We are ready for departure."_

"Go ahead Commander," Janeway responded. "Good luck."

Fiona watched out the view screen. Moments later, the Delta Flyer went zooming away around the other side of the moon. She smiles softly the herself. Someday that would be her flying the Flyer, or so she could dream.

"Cadet, I'd like to see you in my ready room," Janeway smiled and gestured, catching Fiona completely off guard and pulling her from her musings.

"Aye, sir." Fiona nodded, shooting up out of her console and letting an Ensign take over.

Janeway took a seat at her desk. "Sit down, Miss Bishop."

Fiona sat down quickly, almost too quickly based on the laughter playing at the Captain's lips. But she was with her _captain_ right now. This was serious business!

"Fiona," Janeway started. "May I call you that?"

She nodded. "Of course, sir."

With a hand, Janeway shook her head. "Captain works fine."

"Aye s-, Captain," Fiona nodded.

"How have you been, Fiona?" Janeway smiled at her. "Tom Paris reports your training sessions have been quite fruitful."

"He's a good teacher," Fiona smiled. "Most days."

The Captain nodded. "Are you enjoying it?"

Fiona shrugged. "It's fine, Captain."

"Speak freely, cadet. That's an order." Janeway got up and replicated herself some coffee. "Do you want anything?"

"I'm fine, thank you," Fiona shook her head.

Janeway sat down at her desk again. The red haired woman looked Fiona in the eyes. "Now tell me, truthfully. Are you enjoying life here. Are you _glad_ you came aboard?"

"Training is good, yes. I'd give anything to fly the actual Delta Flyer though." Fiona shrugged. "As for life in general? Yes I'm enjoying it. I have few regrets about coming aboard."

"That's good to hear," Janeway nodded. "As for piloting the Delta Flyer, Tom Paris has expressed similar feelings. As soon as it's safe, I plan to let you shadow Lieutenant Paris on the next away mission."

Fiona's face visibly brightened, instantly excited. "That would be amazing!"

"I have been very pleased with your progress, and the progress of your peers." Janeway nodded, standing at gesturing towards the door. "You, Myral, and Shara are all being helpful, contributing members of Voyager's crew, which is more than most thought would happen."

"Glad to be helpful, Captain." Fiona smiled and nodded as they walked into the bridge.

Janeway nodded. "Take your station."


	26. First Shift, the Dinner

Half an hour later, details began pouring in from the away team. Fiona listened intently to the report Chakotay began giving the Captain.

" _Preliminary scans indicate an atmosphere identical to Earth."_

"Identical?" Janeway looked surprised.

" _78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon_." Chakotay continued. " _There are also trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, carbon monoxide, and ammonia."_

Tuvok and Janeway exchanged curious and surprised glances.

"The odds of that happening by accident are extremely small." Tuvok looked at his Captain.

Janeway nodded. "Chakotay, any picture of what the inside likely looks like?"

" _Negative. Not from this distance."_

Tom Paris' voice came through next. " _Captain, if I could get us closer?"_

"Fine. But be careful," she authorized them to move forward.

Ten minutes later and Chakotay hailed them again. Fiona listened in awe as he reported that at least visually, the interior looked, on sensors, strikingly similar to San Francisco's Starfleet Academy.

Chakotay ended after several minutes of troubling reports. " _Should I beam down?"_

"No," Janeway interrupted him. "I want you back here. We're going to prepare you for this away mission, and I'd like to send Tuvok with you."

Fiona was glad that the Captain had decided this. She didn't like the idea of Commander Chakotay beaming down into a strange alien space station. She supposed Janeway didn't like it either.

The rest of her time on shift went without incident. The away team returned a half hour later, and Janeway left the bridge to brief the newly returned Chakotay and Commander Tuvok down in Astrometrics with Seven. She left Tom Paris in charge of the bridge, and Fiona at the helm. Harry relieved Lieutenant Ayala from Ops.

"Hey, Fi." Tom smirked as she turned to look at him. "Good job not crashing us into the moon."

"My pleasure," she bit back.

Harry laughed lightly from where he stood at Ops. Fiona shot him a teasing glare and he stopped, still smiling with a shake of his head. They remained on shift for the next several hours. It was incredibly dull, if Fiona was being honest with herself.

Eventually their shift ended, leaving the mid shift crew on duty. Harry, Tom, and Fiona left the bridge together and went to get food in the mess hall. They took the turbolift down to deck two in relative silence as all three were worn out by this time.

As they walked in, Shara and Neelix were busy preparing dinner. It was pizza night, a favorite of many of the crew including Lieutenant Paris. Fiona enjoyed a good pizza day, but her favorite was Pasta Night.

"What'll it be," Neelix smiled to them as they came to the counter.

"I'll take a slice or two of cheese," Fiona asked.

Shara appeared at the same moment, before she even finished her sentence, holding two slices of cheese pizza on a plate for her. He knew her order by heart by now.

She chuckled as she took her food from Shara. As she went to sit down with her food, Myral came in and spotted her. Another friend for a late afternoon meal!

Soon, Tom and Harry had joined her at a table and Myral followed. She greeted them happily, practically bouncing up and down on her heels for no reason in particular.

"How's sickbay been," Tom asked her as he bit into his pizza. "I never see you when I'm on shift there."

"I think the Doctor does that on purpose," Myral laughed back. "It's been good. I really enjoy his training."

"That's good." Harry nodded as he continued to eat.

"Oh Tom," Fiona muttered through a bite, fearing to lose her thought. "Captain Janeway said I could go on the next regular away mission that you take the Flyer on."

"Chew and _then_ talk," Myral glared at her with laughter in her eyes. The other smirked at Fiona.

But the other young woman objected, after swallowing, saying, " _You_ may not be a savage. I'm not positive about the rest of us."

"Well, Harry definitely isn't," Myral smirked. "You and Tom are up in the air."

The ensign smiled and shook his head. "You give me too much praise."

Tom agreed immediately. "I mean look at him! He hasn't shaved in six hours!"

The group laughed merrily. Shara, finished with his cooking, came over and pulled up a chair. He enjoyed the company of everyone present.

"So, give me the scoop." Shara leaned in. "What's at the space station?"

"We don't know yet," Harry responded, finishing up his food and sitting back against his chair. "The Captain called us back before we could beam down."

" _Lieutenant Paris and Ensign Kim, report to Astrometrics."_

"That's our cue," sighed Tom. "Briefing time."

He and Harry bid them goodbye and left the mess hall, leaving Myral, Fiona, and Shara sitting together at the table. Shara started digging into his dinner as the trio talked.

"Honestly I wish there was more to do in sickbay," Myral admitted after a few minutes. "I love training under the Doctor, but there just aren't many interesting cases to deal with."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Shara asked her as he swallowed a bite of meat covered pizza.

Myral smiled and shrugged. "I mean, yes. It means no one's getting injured. But it's boring. At least on Xenil 5 I had people to treat all the time."

Fiona thought for a moment. "Couldn't you treat holo-characters?"

"I've thought about it, yes." Myral nodded. "I'm going to ask the Doctor."

Fiona ended up bidding her friends goodbye and walking back to her quarters about fifteen minutes later. She wanted to catch up on some reading before her designated holodeck hour. She wanted to get a good chunk of "A Study in Scarlet" read.

As she walked over to her window, she looked out at the endless space, the endless stars out there and it took her breath away. No matter how often she looked out, it never ceased to impact her. The vastness of it all, it was awe-inspiring.

But turning away, she walked to her side table in her bedroom and retrieved the book in question. Slipping off the jacket part of her uniform, she sat in her tanktop and pants, curled into herself on the couch of her sitting room.

After a moment, she decided there needed to be more ambience. Setting down the book, Fiona stood and retrieved a scented candle out of her bedroom. It was lavender and vanilla. She lit it and placed it on the coffee table before her. _Now_ she could read contentedly.


	27. Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

_A/N: After a long hiatus, I can finally say I'm back. I've had enough separation from this story to be revitalized to write it! I need more Trek in my life. So, without further ado, chapter 27!_

It was in the early hours of the morning that Myral walked into sickbay. She knew the Doctor was awake, as he never slept, and she wanted to get some reading done. She always found she did her best studying inside sickbay. The cool colors around her were calming as she had a sense of foreboding. After all, according to Ensign Zirael who she ran into on the way to sickbay, the Away Team had yet to return. What if something had gone wrong? It had been six hours already.

The doors slid open as she walked inside sickbay. The Doctor was listening to his opera music as he caught up on some technical journals they'd picked up on Xenil 5 that he hadn't had time to go through yet. He looked up to see Myral smiling at down at him.

"Computer decrease the volume by twenty-five percent." He spoke loudly so the computer would hear him.

"Good morning, Doctor!" Myral smiled at him as she walked over to where she kept her Padds with technical documents for study. "Computer, decrease the volume by another twenty-five percent!"

"What are you doing up so early?" The Doctor asked her in surprise as he looked unhappily over to the Bajoran who had decreased his music.

She sighed. "I can't sleep. Too worried about the away team."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sure everything is fine."

"Well, I figured I'd catch up on some reading." She held up a Padd.

Suddenly a voice over the comm interrupted them. " _Janeway to Doctor, the away team brought back a human lookalike from the space station. Prepare for it to be beamed to Sickbay."_

"Aye, Captain!" The Doctor quickly made his way to the biobed and configured a forcefield. As soon as the person was beamed there, he erected it.

Myral stood behind the force field, watching the monitor as the Doctor began his scans. The person looked normal, seemed human. As she looked at him there, behind the forcefield, she wondered what he _really_ was.

Moments later, Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay entered sickbay, walking briskly. They came and stood at the forcefield, watching the sleeping human lookalike.

"Wake him," Janeway ordered the Doctor.

He did as he was instructed, taking a hypospray from Myral and injecting the alien with it. It jolted awake.

"Welcome aboard." Janeway stood with her arms folded, straight and tall as always.

In contrast, the newcomer blinked in confusion as his eyes adjusted to the light and he looked around. He sat up, saying, "Where am I?"

The Captain looked at him seriously. "On a starship. "

"What starship?" The human lookalike glanced around in confusion and alarm. "Why have you brought me here? I'll be reporting this incident to the Admiral."

Myral wondered what he was going on about. What Admiral? What was he talking about?

Commander Chakotay shook his head. "You can drop the charade. We know you're not human."

"Who are you?" Janeway asked this immediately and pointedly.

Myral watched from a little ways away, pretending to organize hyposprays. She wasn't sure she was supposed to be there but this was too intriguing to leave alone.

"Gentry, David. Rank, Ensign." The alien recited his information. "Starfleet service number nine nine beta three two seven eight. Planet of origin, Earth."

Myral watched as the exchange grew heated. The Doctor, on the Captain's orders, moved to take a DNA sample. Instantly the alien objected, tapping his combadge in the hopes of alerting his superiors. But it had been disabled. A moment later, as Myral moved closer in awe, he dropped unconscious to the floor. The doctor knelt over him and scanned his body.

"It appears he's released a cellular toxin into his bloodstream. He's dead." The Doctor sighed. "I'll perform an autopsy."

"Keep us up to date," Chakotay ordered as he and Janeway turned to leave.

Once they left Sickbay, the Doctor turned to his Bajoran assistant. Myral was currently standing outside the forcefield, staring down at the dead false human.

"Myral, I need to perform an autopsy." He began gathering the equipment he would need. "I want you to take some samples down to the lab for identification."

The Doctor took several samples of DNA from the alien and handed over some test tubes containing fingernails, hair, and skin shavings. Myral took them carefully and left sickbay and the Doctor to perform the investigation.

"Deck Eight, science lab," she instructed the turbolift.

It zoomed down the decks to the closest exit to the science lab. Still a hallway away, Myral skipped down the corridor and over to the Science Lab. She was trying to get her mind off the death of the alien in Sickbay. When the doors slid open at the Science Lab, she looked inside and found Ensign Zirael running some tests on plant samples.

"Good morning, Ensign," Myral nodded with a small smile.

Zirael looked up curiously from bending over her samples. "Cadet! What brings you down here?"

"The away team came back with an alien," Myral told her. She walked forward and placed the three sample-filled test tubes on the main table. "He appeared human, but definitely wasn't. He killed himself and the Doctor wants you to run some tests on his DNA."

"Sounds good to me," the Cardassian-Human hybrid nodded quickly and turned fully to Myral. "While I do that, can you watch the temperature here and make sure it stays below 50°C?"

Myral smiled and nodded. "Of course."

She switched places with Zirael, watching the thermometer in the solution. The ensign grabbed the three test tubes and began soaking them in some kind of special liquid. As she did so, she spoke to Myral.

"How are things in Sickbay, Cadet?" Zirael asked, her back turned from the Bajoran as she handled the DNA tests. "The Doctor isn't too hard on you?"

Myral laughed. "Nah, it's great. I enjoy the Doctor's company- most days. I do wish there was more to do though than study."

"You want to actually try your hand at treating cases," nodded Zirael. "Understandable."

She stirred the solution she was watching and looked at Zirael. "Problem is, I don't want anyone to be hurt!"

"Holographic patients." Zirael told her this quickly as she still focused on the DNA samples. "It's the obvious solution."

"Yeah I meant to bring it up with the Doc this morning, but then," she gestured with her hands, "all this happened. Just my luck."

Zirael didn't respond. Myral watched as the woman stood straight up, silently, and grew rigid. The Bajoran wondered what the matter was. She walked slowly over to where Zirael was looking at the results of her tests.

"Oh my god," Myral's face went white as a sheet when she saw the match. "This isn't happening."

Zirael swallowed nervously before tapping her combadge. "Ensign Zirael to the Doctor."

" _Ensign?"_

"Sir the results are completed for the alien DNA." Zirael stood still.

There came a sigh across the comm." _Species 8472. My own results just came through as well."_

Myral jumped in. "Should I come help, Doctor?"

" _No. Take some time off."_ The Doctor told her this quickly.

Myral nodded and quickly left the Science Lab behind. She all but ran to her quarters, stressed for herself and for her friends. Stories or Species 8472 were common on Xenil 5, and Harry and Tom had told her the story of the attack on Voyager that brought Seven of Nine to the crew. This was bad.

This was very bad.


	28. Stand Down

That night, deep into the wee hours, Myral, Shara, and Fiona sat in the mess hall. A single picture from Naomi's artwork remained on the mess hall windows. It was weeks since their trip through the Void. All three cadets wished and had hoped they would leave the sadness behind in the darkness of the Void, but it was a foolish hope.

At this very moment, weapons were charged and locked on the space station. Half an hour ago, Tom and Harry had returned without Chakotay. Tom relieved Fiona from her place at the helm, and she had gone directly to find her two best friends. The red alert lights still flashed. Battle stations. Any crewmember off duty was in their quarters. That was where the three cadets should've been as well.

"We might die today," Myral whispered through silent tears. "This might be it."

Shara grabbed her hand and shook his head. "We won't die today. I promise."

Fiona got up and stood, staring out the porthole windows. She had a clear view of the station from where she stood. It looked menacing to her. The only thoughts racing through her mind were thank god Harry and Tom were okay, but also constant hoping that Chakotay would come back to them unscathed.

As she turned back to her friends and opened her mouth to speak, the red alert lights turned off. They all exchanged looks in surprise and hope.

"Does that mean we aren't going to war?" Myral sounded hopeful, though she looked around, half expecting the red alert to come back online.

"We should get some sleep. However this goes, it doesn't seem unhopeful right now," urged Shara. He stood up and gestured for the door. "Come on."

Fiona and Myral knew he was right and the two of them finally started after him a few moments later. With the threat of the red alert gone, only good news was on the horizon. Since Fiona, their usual source of news, did not get shifts during times of crises, they would have to wait for Myral to pick something up from the Doctor, or Shara to get gossip from crewmen.

They left the mess hall and continued on to their individual quarters. Fiona was decidedly distracted when she left them, with only thoughts of Chakotay on her mind. Hopefully the lack of red alert meant they had him back. She would definitely find Tom and Harry in the morning once they were off shift.

Fiona reached out a hand to grab her book, but she stopped before she reached it. She knew she should go straight to sleep, but she didn't want to. She couldn't sleep at a time like this!

 _Nevertheless I have to try,_ she supposed.

The sheets felt scratchy to her that night. Their dull grey cotton make was not comfy in the least to someone who didn't want to sleep in the first place. As she lay there, tossing and turning, images of ten foot tall monstrous aliens of Species 8472 filled her mind. They were larger than life. She envisioned the aliens tearing into her friends, eviscerating them. It terrified her.

She didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until she woke up hours later to a knock on her door. She scrambled out of bed in her shorts and tank top, pulling her hair into a ponytail and flicking her bangs out of her eyes. Fiona pressed the button to open the door and was surprised to find Harry at the door.

"Do you want a chance to see Earth?" He smiled to her.

She looked at him as if he was crazy. "Good morning to you, too."

Harry laughed. "Get dressed and meet me in shuttlebay two."

She shrugged and nodded, heading back inside as Harry left her door. With a yawn and a stretch she waltzed back into her bedroom.

"Computer, what time is it?"

" _Ten Hundred Hours."_

"Thanks."

She slipped into her uniform, brushed her teeth, and used the bathroom. After ten minutes, she slapped her combadge on and made her bed before leaving for shuttlebay two. What had Harry meant by seeing Earth? At first she'd thought he meant in the holodeck. That would make sense, not in the shuttlebay.

When she finally arrived, she found Tom, Harry, and B'Elanna there. She must've looked surprised because Tom laughed at her.

"You have no idea what's going on, do you?" He snickered. When she shook her head, He went to continue but Harry cut him off.

"We made peace with Species 8472, at least… with this group. They've invited us to the station!" Harry continued. "The Captain sent Myral down earlier with the Doctor, and Shara just left with Neelix and Tuvok."

Fiona was obviously skeptical. "They were trying to kill us yesterday."

B'Elanna nodded. "True. But they seem to understand we mean no threat to them."

"Seem to." Fiona couldn't help but think about her monstrous dreams that previous night. "Well, I suppose we should get this done with."

"Everyone in!" Tom pushed her forward towards the Delta Flyer.

She glared back at him and almost stood in his way. B'Elanna scolded him instead, and Fiona smiled at her appreciatively. Tom Paris took the pilot seat, B'Elanna the Tactical console, and Harry took Ops. That left Fiona the Aft console. She took her station and turned, watching Tom work his magic with ships. She wished she could be as good as him, wished she could pilot the Delta Flyer. All she could do was remind herself of Janeway's promise to let her shadow the next away mission.

As they departed Voyager, she looked out the front windows at the space station. Two shuttles had already docked, and the Flyer was to be the third. Suddenly her skin shivered and she felt goosebumps up her arms. Scared or excited, she wasn't sure.

The space station grabbed the ship in the mooring dock. They heard the atmosphere fill the connector and then a click. They all exchanged glances and nods.

B'Elanna led the way through the aft connection to the station. Tom and Harry went next, finally followed by Fiona. As the airlock door opened and they set foot on the station, Fiona was amazed as she found herself surrounded by gardens. A man stood before them. He looked human, but they knew by now that he wasn't.

"Welcome to Terrasphere Eight, Starfleet Command re-creation. I am Captain Marcus. According to your captain, you have one hour to explore." The man looked at Fiona curiously as he addressed them all. "I'll take you to the main complex."

"Thank you," Harry nodded.

For an hour they scoured the Starfleet Command re-creation, running into Chakotay along the way. Fiona expressed her gratefulness at his safety. She got many strange looks from Species 8472. Perhaps they knew she was young for a member of humanity.

Too soon was their hour up. Back to the Delta Flyer they went. Fiona again found herself thinking Earth, even this re-creation, to be the most beautiful planet to exist. She was proud to be from it.


	29. Captain Proton: Episode Three

When Fiona got back to Voyager, she went to grab a late lunch in her quarters by herself. She needed a rest after the excitement of the morning. The young woman decided on an earth classic, at least according to Harry Kim.

"Grilled cheese and french fries," she told the computer. "With ketchup on the side. Oh! And a water."

After a few moments, it materialized in front of her. Fiona picked up the tray and walked over to her couch. She gingerly placed it on the table, not wanting to spill her glass of water. The book on her coffee table was something given to her by Harry Kim. It was a landscapes of Earth book.

She chewed on her meal in quiet enjoyment. Fiona opened the book, look at the pages carefully in longing. The green grass and bright blue waters of Earth, the icy north and grand deserts of the equator, it was all immeasurably beautiful.

" _Lieutenant Paris to Cadet Bishop."_

Fiona sighed, closing the book and tapping her combadge. "Go ahead, Tom."

" _Lady Celestial is formally invited to holodeck one in ten minutes."_

With a smile, she replied. "Lady Celestial will meet you and Buster Kinkaid at the appointed time!"

" _Great!"_

Fiona decided on a new look for Lady Celestial this time around. She went to the replicator and got the outfit she wanted, slipping into the white dress that went below her knees and fanned out at the end so when she spun, it flew outwards. For shoes, she selected the same tall, black boots she had worn the last time. Finally she did her hair back in a ponytail as usual, placing a white star in her hair. She strapped on her holster and belt for her ray gun and slipped out the door in under ten minutes.

The hallways were usually busy after lunch. Often times engineers would be repairing something, or science officers would be transferring experiments between Sickbay and the Lab. After lunch, most crewmembers would be searching for something to do when off duty, too.

But today it was quieter than normal. Fiona made her way to the turbolift on Deck Two and took it down to Holodeck One. The noise of the turbolift was soothing to her, like the hum of the warp core. Once she reached her destination, she waited a few moments for Tom and Harry to show.

"Looking good," Harry smiled to her. "I like the new outfit."

Tom agreed as he punched in the correct episode number. At last the door opened.

"Well, Lady Celestial _is_ a princess after all." Fiona smirked at them as they walked inside.

The computer spoke then. " _Captain Proton Episode 42: The Hand Trap, part one."_

They found themselves, as usual, inside the rocket ship. The grey scale coloring was actually somewhat pleasing to Fiona. It was such an alien world.

"It's called _The Hand Trap_?" Harry looked at Tom in surprise.

Tom grinned and both Harry and Fiona felt suspicious. The former of the three rushed to his station as an alarm began going off in the rocket ship.

"Buster! Check the superdrive!" Tom messed with some controls. "We're slowing down."

Harry jumped into action, running over to another set of panels. He looked at the information and turned to Tom. "It's working, we just aren't moving!"

Fiona went to the front of the rocket ship and looked out the window. What she saw made her face scrunch in worry. "Guys?" She pointed out the window.

Approaching then was a giant, green, space hand. It was huge! The size of their rocket ship at least, the giant green hand went to grab their ship.

Tom paused for a moment. "Computer, adjust the hand's spectral frequency." As it turned grey immediately, he resumed his character.

Harry looked at it in awe as suddenly the ship was rocked. "Now we are in the clutches of… a hand?"

"Buster is right!" Tom Paris leapt down from his step above the main floor.

Fiona placed her hands on her hips. "What are we to do, Captain Proton?!"

"We could try firing at it?" Harry suggested with a shrug.

Fiona agreed immediately. This was like a parasite. They needed to pull it off, or force it off. A giant hand gripping your rocket ship was not a good sign, not by anyone's measurements.

However Tom looked skeptical. "Are you sure that's smart, Buster? Celestial what do you say?"

"We fight." She hardened her eyes and ran to her battle stations.

"Sounds like a plan," Tom grinned and ran to his station. "Pull the lever, Celestial!"

There were three levers. She pulled the right-hand one and grimaced as they heard the trash ejected from the cargo hold.

"Wrong lever," Captain Proton yelled back at her. "The middle one!"

Fiona rolled her eyes and pulled the center lever. Immediately the ray beams began charging on the rocket ship. After about twenty seconds, Tom turned to Harry.

"Now?" Buster asked Proton.

Tom nodded. "Now!"

The lasers fired immediately after Buster Kinkaid pressed his button. The ship rocked violently, throwing them across the floor. The hand was injured, but it just made it angrier.

"That seems like it was a bad idea!" Celestial shouted as the ship shook.

Tom glared at her. "Thank you, Lady Celestial!"

Harry scrambled back to his station and turned off the laser beams. Tom finally managed to reach his steering mechanism and tried to steer their way out of the Hand's grip. He put pressure from side to side and still the rocket ship wouldn't budge.

"Try reverse thrust?" Fiona suggested this as she managed to pull herself up into a chair.

Tom was doing his best and shouted back at her. "Already tried that!"

Harry ran to a control panel. "We could-"

" _Commander Chakotay to Lieutenant Paris."_

"Computer, freeze program!" Fiona ordered.

Tom looked at her in thanks before tapping his combadge. "Go ahead, Commander."

" _Would you and Cadet Bishop report to the briefing room? The Captain and I would like to go over potential away missions."_

"Of course. We're on our way," Tom Paris ended the conversation and sighed. "Guess we'll have to continue this tomorrow."

As they left the holodeck, ending the program, Fiona turned to her two companions. "That was number 42 right? Even ones are always better than odds."

The two others agreed with her completely. Even programs always outshined the odds.


End file.
